Yugoslav Drama Theatre and Budva Theatre City Festival

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Translated by Zoran Bozović

Premiere at the St. Stefan Amphitheatre on Thursday, July 17 2011
Premiere at Ljuba Tadić Stage on Tuesday, October 4 2011

NADA ŠARGIN

ABOUT THE PLAY

Man, probably, lives with an inspiration to reach a zenith of sorts, however distant or close it may be. And sometimes you find yourself in a situation, people who are very sick are probably in such a situation, to lie on your back and look at your own universe reduced to a very small space where the zenith is within arm’s reach.(…) Ranyevska buries her life in inconsequential problems she spends the days of her life on in order not to face the central problem she needs to address and reach for her own zenith. In Act One, when she arrives, she remarks on how magnificent the cherry orchard is. Whether it is indeed magnificent is questionable because it is in a state of decay and an eye with even the slightest amount of objectivity would consider it to be a second-hand, crushed and fairly fall-prone. These trees are not eternal unless they are tended to, and nowhere does it say they are. But she says that IT, this bloom, that it is magnificent and that it is always reborn just as splendidly and unbridedly as she cannot be. She fails to perceive that it is a cycle that is bound to end even as it is. She simply wants her life to be such a finite sensation – a cherry orchard in bloom. (…) I asked for the stage space to be outside-in. The set design is reminiscent of a Russian house whose outer façade is made of wood. We were making our set from those wood planks that look as though they were already possessed by rot and have a patina. The space is vaguely that of a nursery. These are all some mementos from the nursery. We constantly battle these childhood dreams and inventions. Cherry orchard too is a fruit of such inventions. It was important for me to see what takes place in the triangle between Ranyevska, Lopakhin and Gayev and I didn’t need much space for that.

Dejan Mijač

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ABOUT THE WRITER

ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV

Born 1860 in Taganrog. He started writing while studying at medical school in Moscow. He published humorous stories from 1880. The atmosphere of Russian society in pre-revolution era was reflected in his work, and in particular serenity of nature, bourgeois dissatisfaction and ideological dilemmas of Russian intelligentsia.
Chekhov showed interest in drama and theatre even as a high school student. In early eighteen eighties he wrote a play without title in which he portrayed people with no higher goals (the play hadn’t been published until 1923 and was subsequently performed under the title Platonov). In late eighties and early nineties he wrote a number of dramatic exercises and vaudevilles: On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, Swansong, The Bear, The Wedding, The Festivities etc. that found their place in repertories of Russian theatres. At the time he also wrote Ivanov and comedy The Wood Demon. These works addressing current issues in the life of bourgeois intelligentsia marked the beginning of the author’s full creative maturity. From 1895 to 1903 he wrote his most important plays: Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These plays were produced at Moscow Art Theatre with great success and made crucial contribution to the development of the style of this important Russian theatre. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died of tuberculosis in 1904, in Badenweiler in Germany.

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

DEJAN MIJAČ

Dejan Mijač graduated from the Department of Directing of the Theatre Academy in Belgrade in 1957, in the class of professor Vjekoslav Afrić. From 1957 to 1961 he directs at National Theatre in Tuzla, and from 1962 to 1974  at Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. His direction of Pokondirena Tikva by Jovan St. Popović (Serbian National Theatre, 1973) becomes one of the cornerstones of contemporary Yugoslav theatre. He taught acting at SNT Drama Studio (1964-1972) and led an acting class at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (1978-1980). From 1974 until retirement, he taught directing at the Faculty of Drama Arts. In Belgrade, he directs his most significant plays at Yugoslav Drama Theatre. In collaboration of YDP and Budva Theatre City Festival, he directed the plays ‘Tsar’ Stephen the Little by Petar Petrović Njegoš, Leonce and Lena by Georg Buechner and Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare. In collaboration between Budva Theatre City and Kult Theatre he directed Radovan III by Dušan Kovačević.
He directed classic and contemporary plays at all major theatres of former Yugoslavia.

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REVIEWS

Great actors and a great play.
Pobijeda, 19th July 2011

A large audience greeted the cast with long ovations.
Politika, 19th July 2011

The play does definitely make us better - it doesn’t carry any particular "lesson", but it moves us, "the bunglers", permanently, calling us and leading us, serving as a revelation and widening the limits of humanity.
Pobijeda, 23rd July 2011

The directorship of Dejan Mijač is characterized by a very subtle and studious, poetic approach, an effective minimalism which is good breeding ground for the cultivation of symbolic meanings as well as for exciting, playful acting.
Politika, 20th July 2011
                                
A Plausible Theatrical Reading Of Chekhov
Even Chekhov himself, who was very unhappy with the way of acting in the first performances of his dramas (comedies), would probably be satisfied with the performances of the actors in Mijač’s play, particularly because of the subtlety and the lack of overemphasis on feelings. When the expression of emotions in the play is increased, it is clearly theatric in order to establish a larger ironic detachment (...) Jasna Djuričić has built a strong figure of the elegant and authoritative Ranyewska, a symbolic figure of the vain effort to maintain something, at any cost, that is already lost. Svetozar Cvetković has over infantilized the character of her brother Gayew - he acts too spoiled and childish, to the limit of crossing the boundaries of normal behavior. Boris Isaković is also impressive in the role of Lopahin. He plays with ease and confidence creating the character of the New Rich, of the simple and primitive farmer with limited understanding and requests, and the symbolic representative of the coming social change. Vlasta Velisavljević very gently plays the well aged lackey Firs, who sneaks around them like a ghost, imperceptible and sadly forgotten. He represents the victim of the social insensitivity, but also the changing times whose direction is not yet completely clear.
We live in a society that focus and emphasize the youth, beauty, outer attraction, while rejecting the elders, mocking them and declaring them useless, as if they thus fight their own fear of death – by denying it. The character of Firs can therefore be understood as a metaphorical figure of the victim of the social cruelty, and not only cruelty but also denial of the Truth.
Ana Tasić, Gest, Podgorica, Autumn 2011

The Battle for Memories
When the dust settles down, caused by the director Dejan Mijač’s announcement that this is his last direction, and when the attention is focused back on the play itself, it is clear that our theatre has become richer for a good contemporary reading of Chekhov. Dejan Mijač doesn’t hesitate to challenge himself at this kind of contemporary directorship style that we have, among others, got introduced to at Bitef during the recent years. Thus we are speaking of that kind of directorial poetics, the so-called direct expression, or a sort of direct access to the subject in which, although acknowledged, one does not insist on the dramatic action and its course, but emphases is on the specific situation. (...) Mijač had an attempt to revive Chekhov's characters today and among us, and eventually to tell us something above that. Perhaps, more than anything, that it is necessary to take actions on time, otherwise may our country, and not just the land, but the memories which we think that are our own, go to another. Of course, the actors are of critical importance to the success of this play.

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