Chekhov’s “Ivanov” will be premiered tonight at the National Theater of Republika Srpska. The play was directed by Željko Đukić, a director who collaborates with our theater for the first time, but who has an enviable career behind him.
Đukić is originally from our region, but spent a large part of his life working in the United States. He has a master’s degree in theater direction and drama theory, but is also a good pedagogue, who says that he stopped coming back a long time ago and now leaves all the time.
For MONDO, he spoke about cooperation with the NPRS ensemble, Chekhov, new knowledge in old texts, but also about his students and life “across the pond”.
– This is not the first time you have done Chekhov, and since you said that you reevaluate yourself every time, did you discover something new about yourself and the theater this time doing “Ivanova” at NPRS?
Yes, I discovered how much we lack in life and in the theater the sense of measure that Chekhov points us to. “Even a horse knows how to drink,” says Lebedev, a drunkard, and the most reasonable character in Ivanovo, “but you need to know how to drink in moderation.”. The question of how we see ourselves was constantly present while we were making the play.
In Ivanovo, this is also one of the themes: Ivanovo deviates from his environment. He has other priorities. He does not indulge in alcohol, he does not chase after money and glamour, he is not a careerist. He wants to understand himself and the world in which he lives. But people have become vain and deceitful. They are easily carried away by superficial ideas, they think they are bigger and better than they are. Ivanov would like to change that, but he is tired and weak. Everything has already gone to hell.
– What are your impressions of NPRS and the cast? How would you describe the work process and with what emotions do you welcome the prime minister?
I believe that we worked as a team, and that in our meeting there was a lot of exchange of ideas and opinions, games. It seems to me that from time to time the most interesting and exciting thing in the art of acting happened to us: hidden meanings were also revealed to us, the ineffable and secret, the things that appear in the moment, during a good rehearsal. And that is only possible with a professional and flexible acting ensemble. We are looking forward to the audience.
– Did you attribute any characteristics to Ivan, that is, to your version of him? What kind of man (or who specifically) did you have in mind when creating this play?
“Like a shadow I sneak among people,” Ivanov says about himself in his final monologue. How to play shadow man? It seems to me that Željko Erkić, with his restraint and simplicity of expression, speech, movements and facial expressions, gave us on the one hand a transparent Ivanov who cannot hide anything and on the other, a man who becomes more and more mysterious and elusive with every thought he utters.
– You lived and worked in the USA for a long time. What made you decide to return home?
Some people keep coming back; I think I keep leaving. Can a man even come back? Maybe it’s just a matter of continuing the journey?
The theater I wanted to do in America was only possible if you were not tied to the world of corporations or financial systems that dictate how and what to do. I was lucky that for a while that was possible.
For years I ran a theater in Chicago where I developed as a person and a director. It is the environment that determined me to a certain extent, but I was also determined by the environment where I was born and where I received my first knowledge about life and theater art.
I think that those two experiences, fractured in me, are not incompatible and that I can apply some things I learned there.
– Given that you are also a pedagogue, and that you have taught both here and “across the pond”, can you single out some important things that you have learned from your students?
I try to encourage and support each student to follow the path he has chosen, while at the same time all this corresponds to the time and space in which he lives. As I observe and participate in their development and search for the authentic, their discoveries and delights are transferred to me.
– And finally, does theater, or art in general, have the power today to change the world for the better and how can we all help in that?
I don’t believe that art can change reality, but certainly that important questions concerning reality are raised in the theater. Can, for example, the contours of a new and different life be hinted at in a theatrical performance, can pseudo-problems be separated from real ones, can we remove doubts about changes, is it possible to demystify history…
You can watch the play “Ivanov” tonight at 8 pm on the NPRS Main Stage, and the first rerun is scheduled for Saturday, March 11, at the same time and place. Find more details at the official website of the theater.
The roles in the play are played by: Željko Erkić, Miljka Brđanin, Željko Stjepanović, Boris Šavija, Vedrana Mačković, Dana Poletan, Pavle Pavić, Belinda Stijak, Anando Čenić, Zoran Stanišič, and Đorđe Marković as a guest and Nikola Đaković as an accordionist.
(WORLD)