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Translation from the Ancient Greek Language by
Aleksandar GATALICA
Directed, adapted and Music Selection by
Staffan Valdemar HOLM
Set and Costume Design
Bente Lykke MOLLER
Lighting Design Torben LENDORPH
Dramaturgy Slavko MILANOVIĆ
Music Arrangements Vladimir PETRIČEVIĆ
Speech Ljiljana MRKIĆ-POPOVIĆ
Simultaneous translation Serbian-Swedish
Vesna STANIŠIĆ
Producers
Borislav BALAĆ, Milorad JOVANOVIĆ
Assistant Director Ivana NENADOVIĆ
Assistant Set Designer Miraš VUKSANOVIĆ
Assistant Costume Designer Olga MRĐENOVIĆ
Premiere:
February 19th 2010 |
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CAST |
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Dionysus, the youngest Olympus god, son of Semele and Zeus |
Nenad STOJMENOVIĆ |
Tiresias, the Prophet of Thebes |
Marko NIKOLIĆ |
Cadmus, Old Theban king, Pentheus’ grandfather |
Tanasije UZUNOVIĆ |
Pentheus, son of Agave and grandson of Cadmus, king of Thebes |
Igor ĐORĐEVIĆ |
Messenger |
Slobodan BEŠTIĆ |
Agave, daughter to Cadmus, mother to Pentheus |
Radmila ŽIVKOVIĆ |
Chorus |
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Alfa |
Stela ĆETKOVIĆ |
Beta |
Nela MIHAILOVIĆ |
Gama |
Jelena HELC |
Delta |
Daniela KUZMANOVIĆ |
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| NATIONAL THEATRE - BELGRADE |
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The activity of the Drama of the National Theatre can be viewed as a development in four stages: from 1868 till 1914, from 1918 till 1941, from 1945 till 1991, and from 1991 till today. The first stage is marked by many tragedies and enactments inspired by mediaeval and modern history, like The Death of Uroš V by Stefan Stefanović. The characteristic of the repertoire of the National Theatre, especially at the end of the 19th century were plays with singing like dramatizations of Stevan Sremac’s popular short stories: Zona Zamfirova and Ivkova Slava In the first two decades of the 20th century the broadening of subject matters was noticeable. Beside Branislav Nušić, best young authors write for the National Theatre, and we must mention Simo Matavulj, Vojislav Jovanović Marambo and Milivoj Predić. Koštana by Borisav Stanković was first shown at the very beginning of the 20th century and it has remained the cult performance of this theatre till this day.In the first stage on the repertoire of the National Theatre were plays written by the most significant writers of all periods: from the earliest (Sophocles), to Shakespeare, Calderon, Moliere, Racine, Goldoni, Rostand, Goethe, Ibsen, Strindberg, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Chekhov and Gorky. Between the two world wars, speaking of domestic dramaturgy, the plays of Jovan Sterija Popović, Branislav Nušić, Milutin Bojić, Borisav Stanković, Ivo Vojnović, Milan Begović, Ivan Cankar and Todor Manojlović were staged. In the period from 1945 till 1953 the plays with clear political message were played. In the first two years of this period, the Russian playwrights had the primacy. Political changes and certain liberalization characterise the relationship towards the foreign dramaturgy and discovering of the American drama and the works of Jonesco and Becket. Seventies and eighties were marked by plays of Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz, Aleksandar Popović, Žarko Komanin, Ljubomir Simović and Jovan Hristić. The National Theatre opened its door to the contemporary world dramaturgy. Plays by Martin Mcdona, Erich Emanuel Schmidt, Nina Valsa, Jasmina Reza, Pavel Kohout are played and plays by Serbian contemporary writers Siniša Kovačević, Vida Ognjenović, Jelena Kajgo, Miloš Nikolić, Stevan Pešić can be seen on the stage of the National Theatre. |
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P E R F O R M A N C E...... |
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| THE TRAGIC GAIETY OF 'THE BACCHAE' |
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“None of the existing Greek tragedies is so saturated with religious images,” as is The Bacchae by Euripides, says Jan Kott in his most comprehensive study: Eating of the Gods, The Bacchae by Euripides. Kott says this play “shows off” Euripides’ erudition, and demonstrates once again, that he is among the most scholarly Hellene of his time. Besides the basic myth of Dionysus’ birth – child of Zeus and Cadmus’ daughter, Semele, and thus directly linked with the tragedy’s plot – Euripides, according to Kott, alluded to numerous other versions of the myth, and even questioned historical data on how the Dionysian cult arrived in Greece. And since, according to Plutarch, Dionysus is a god who is, “subject to constant changes of his beings” (thus the impressive list of his different names), things get even more complicated. Director Staffan Valdemar Holm frees the text of most mythological material. This is understandable as modern audiences do not necessarily come to the theatre conversant in the complicated mythological material essential to this play. The director’s decision is supported by the myth itself; not only because its countless variations show surprising similarities, but also because of Dionysus’ “kinship” with humankind today. As Euripides says Dionysius is “men’s best liked and the most fearsome god” because of his very human nature.” As Jan Kott states: “The Dionysus myth is at the same time genetic and cosmic... The myth speaks of man’s dual nature.” Human beings were created from Titan’s ashes. But the Titans ate Dionysus, before they were turned into ashes. The soul captured inside the body is a Dionysian substance that has survived in men.” As Tiresias says in the Bacchae, “much of this God has come into men.” We can also see it today. The 1960’s showed “the dearest” side of the Dionysian human nature. Like in some prolonged Dionysian festivities (which lasted for six days in ancient Greece), the world danced and sang for a decade, led by the “flower children” as modern “Bacchants.” In other, fearsome modern incarnations, Dionysus showed his face in the consequences of the Vietnam War or the horrific Charles Manson’s murders. Walter Kaufman in his study Tragedy and Philosophy says “an inexorable uniformity of both adversaries, Pentheus and Dionysus, contribute to the tragedy. The poetic force of The Bacchae carries a symbolic strength of an unbelievable conclusion: the rational fear of passion becomes lecherous; and a man blind for a vast beauty of irrational experience is destroyed by those who, giving up the reason, enjoy the blindness of their frenzy.” This inner battle is even stronger in a modern man, believes Carl Gustav Jung when he talks about “the Apollonian and the Dionysian” as distinct psychological categories: “Hindered instincts in a civilized man are tremendously devastating and more dangerous than the instincts of a primitive man who, to a certain degree, gives incessant vent to his negative instincts. The Bacchae could be considered a classic illustration of this phenomenon. Agave and the other Bacchae who dismember her son, Pentheus, are not barbarians but hyper-civilized mockers of faith who Dionysus punishes by making their frenzied rituals ultimately beastly.
Director Holm consistently reminded actors in rehearsals that for the first two-thirds of the play The Bacchae is a comedy, and in the last part a brutal tragedy (such a tragedy that Aristotle declared Euripides “the poet of what is mostly tragic”). The rationale for such an understanding lies in Euripides’ technique. “The amusing parts exist precisely to make the tragedy even more poignant and horrifying,” Holm says. There is no paradox in Holm’s statement. Other playwrights of tragedies also used dramatic irony, comic interludes and dialogues to make this point. And, in several cases, Aeschylus’, Sophocles’ and Euripides’ tragedies do not end wretchedly. When Hellenic culture was at its peak and was, as Miloš Đurić puts it, “the most beautiful flower,” tragedy represented the affirmation of the “will to life”. Nietzsche speaks of cheerful, even joyful tragedy, which merely points to a complex idea of catharsis. In two-thirds of his masterpiece, The Bacchae, Euripides seems to return to tragedy’s very roots – a satyr play performed at the Dionysian festivities that did not have its later tragic seriousness. After all, music and theatre, without which the Dionysian mysteries would not have existed, are mentioned in The Bacchae several times.
The theatre is the main topic and the main character of this play. The theatre reduced to its basic elements – acting and poetry.
 Slavko MILANOVIĆ, The Play Programme |
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S E L E C T O R ' S...R E P O R T...... |
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There are no guidelines and no signposts in Euripides, he just recognises
two basic powers in life, Dionysian and Apollonian; the reign
of reason and the reign of appetite. And man is condemned to try
to balance them all his life, using the power of one in the battle
against the other, without a permission to let one prevail. For consequences
are fatal. The entire second part is a horrible sobering
after a crime; after a blessed sleep the nightmare of reality came.
There are no sentiments in Euripides, only the cold drawing of lines
between causes and effects. So, who wants to see will see; who wants
to hear will hear.
Aleksandra GLOVACKI |
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STAFFAN VALDEMAR HOLM, director
Born in 1958 in Tomelilla in Southern Sweden. Married to Bente Lykke Moller his steady set and costume designer. Studies in literature, theatre, film and art at the University of Lund. Studied theatre direction 1984-88 at the Danish Theatre Academy in Copenhagen. During this period a guest observer at Schaubühne, Berlin, following the work of Peter Stein. Founded Nya Skandinaviska Försoksteatern (New Scandinavian Experimental Theatre) 1989 after the example of Strindberg 100 years earlier. Started as a playwright- has written 7 plays and the most recent Vögelein is playing at the National Theatre in Belgrade.
Since leaving the academy he has directed around 60 productions, drama as well as opera mostly in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Malmö, but also in Berlin (Deutsches Theater), Vienna, Santiago de Chile and Madrid. His productions have been invited to different theatres and festivals, among others: to Schaubühne, Berlin and the Schiller Festival in Mannheim (Germany), BAM New York, Belgrade, to Madrid, St. Petersburg, Turin, Porto, Bergen, Sarajevo.
1990-92 steady engaged director at the Royal Theatre (Kongelige Teater) in Copenhagen. 1992-98 artistic and managing director of Malmö Dramatiska Teater ( the city theatre). 2002-08 artistic and managing director of Dramaten in Stockholm. Founder of ”Ingmar Bergman International Theatre Festival” in Stockholm and its first artistic director opening the festival 2009. Vice president of U.T.E. 2007-08 till Dramaten left the organisation. One of the initiative takers for the new European theatre network, Mitos21 which includes, among others: National Theatre London, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Tuneel Group and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, were hi is going to be artistic director starting february 2011.
Has received several awards in different countries. |
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THERE IS NO TRAGEDY WITHOUT A COMEDY |
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Talking about common opinion that Greek drama is something boring and static, the director is representative of future audience during rehearsals and I don’t accept to be bored while I work. The “Bacchae” have that Shakespearean moment – there is no tragedy without a comedy. Comical and funny parts exist only to make the tragedy even more severe at the end. I don’t expect the modern audience anywhere, be it in Stockholm, Berlin or Belgrade, to know the whole Greek mythology, therefore the play is based neither on mythical nor on historic point of view. During rehearsals we talked about the 60’s, about how everything was great – there was free love, sex, Woodstock, flower power, music, everything that was out of ordinary, very strict society. But then, only a few years later, there was a war in Vietnam, murder of Sharon Tate Polanski and events in Manson’s house. The thing that started as mild, pleasurable and loving turned into brutality.
Staffan Valdemar HOLM |
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EURIPIDES (ca. 480 BCE – 406 BCE)
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles. He is believed to have written over 90 plays, 18 of which are extant (it is now widely believed that a nineteenth, Rhesus, was written by someone else). Fragments of most of the other plays survive, some of them substantial. More of his plays have survived than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because of the chance preservation of a manuscript that was probably part of a complete collection of his works. Euripides is known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of traditional Attic tragedy by showing strong women characters and smart slaves, and by satirizing many heroes of Greek mythology.
Private life - His mother's name was Cleito, and his father's either Mnesarchus or Mnesarchides. Evidence suggests that Euripides' family was comfortable financially. He had a wife named Melito, and together they had three sons. It is rumored that he also had a daughter, but she was killed after a rabid dog attacked her. Some call this rumor a joke that Aristophanes, a comic writer who often poked fun at Euripides, wrote about him. However, many historians fail to see the humor in this and believe it is indeed true.
Public life - The record of Euripides' public life, other than his involvement in dramatic competitions, is almost non-existent. There is no reason or historical evidence to believe that he travelled to Syracuse, Sicily or engaged himself in any other public or political activities during his lifetime, or left Athens at the invitation of king Archelaus II and stayed with him in Macedonia after 408 BC.
His Plays - Euripides first competed in the famous Athenian dramatic festival (the Dionysia) in 455 BC, one year after the death of Aeschylus. He came in third. It was not until 441 BC that he won first place, and over the course of his lifetime, Euripides claimed a mere four victories. He was a frequent target of Aristophanes' humor. He appears as a character in The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazousae, and most memorably in The Frogs, where Dionysus travels to Hades to bring Euripides back from the dead. After a competition of poetry, Dionysus opts to bring Aeschylus instead. Euripides' final competition in Athens was in 408 BC. Although there is a story that he left Athens embittered because of his defeats, there is no real evidence to support it. He died in 406 BC, probably in Athens or nearby, and not in Macedon, as some biographers repeatedly state. The Bacchae was performed after his death in 405 BC. When compared with Aeschylus, who won thirteen times, and Sophocles, with eighteen victories, Euripides was the least honored, though not necessarily the least popular, of the three - at least in his lifetime. Later, in the 4th century BC, the dramas of Euripides became more popular than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles. His works influenced New Comedy and Roman drama, and were later idolized by the French classicists; his influence on drama reaches modern times. Euripides' greatest works are considered to be Alcestis, Medea, Electra and The Bacchae. |
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Dangerous Seductiveness
Already at first sight, the playBacchae by the National Theatre seems like a German or some related, top-notch contemporary theatre. The famous Swedish and European director Staffan Valdemar Holm (...) and his collaborators have designed the great Euripides tragedy The Bacchae in a stylistically purified and minimalised manner, with taste, measure and contemporary sensibility. In front of a neutral, gray wall, which can be an association to an Antique stage, and above which Spring, in the dramatic moments of the plot, a large pendulum – a metaphor of the flow of fate, divine transcendence, ephemerity of human ambitions, or primarily a witty joke – the choir of the Bacchae comes out in an athletic, elegant garment from the 1950s and the 60s. Their religious fervor is effectively choreographically stylised in the spirit of a modern disco dance, followed by the famous hits of the Rolling Stones and others.
(...) The setting of the main character, the god Dyonisus, seems like a sharpened and meaningful directorial interpretation: in the play of Nenad Stojmenović, the director sharply and conceptually conspicuously exchanges the stylised femininity (duck’s gait, high-pitched voice, gentle removing of the blond locks from the face) with occasional breakouts of very convincing male energy. This setting, however, is only challenging on the level of the form, while it does not bring anything new in relationship to Euripides’ text on the interpretational level, because Dyonisus’ androgyny is obvious from the first verses of the tragedy. The stylisation in the setting of Dyonisus is justified at least in that commonly known characteristic of this god, but then the similar directorial approach in composing the play of the choir (Stela Ćetković, Jelena Helc, Daniela Kuzmanović, Nela Mihailović), with the neurotic/mechanic moves typical for every choir member in particular, does not accomplish more than a very impressive effect. The director has given more space for dramatic/tragic elaboration to Radmila Živković – which is logical since Agave experiences a real emotional downfall when she discovers that, with her mind blurred, she had dismembered her own son – which the actress amply uses.
So, the initial impression acquires an additional backing: the stage language of the play The Bacchae is modern, witty, effective, but self-sufficient, because it does not interpret the piece, it only covers it on the outside in the form of isolated solutions. This complete lack of concept can be justified by the trend in contemporary European direction that the plays are preached with its particular stage language, and at the same time they are commented from different philosophic, political or aesthetic positions, but such an explanation sounds far fetched. On the other hand, the directorial deconstruction that thoughtfully opens the text to a few simultaneous, equal readings should not be mixed with the lack of any kind of reading, which is the case with these Bacchae if we take out the random genre play – puting comic elements into a tragedy. This is great pity because Euripides’ enigmatic testamental text is offered for such, real and original, directorial deconstruction. The story about Dyonisus who, taking a human form, descends into the city of Thebes in order to impose his own, for the social order dangerous cult, and exact a revenge on King Pentheus and his relatives who ignored him, initiates numerous dilemmas in interpretations, starting with the basic one: is this a praise to the divine power and a higher, other-worldly experience of the world, or a critique of divine tyranny and religious totalitarianism, or any other order? Beside this contradiction, which is fruitful even in a contemporary society, the tragedy opens other, more philosophic and anthropologic meanings, primarily those related to a dissolution, in the spirit of Deridian thought and our modern society, of all the stable identities, for bringing instability and otherness in every immanence, which is all sublimed in Dionysus – a god and a mortal, a man and a woman, gentle and terrible, foreigner and local, barbarian and the man of culture... Everything in the play by the National Theatre recognised better than these or other possible meanings always seen by the inspired director better than any critic is the result of counting the audience in, of following the text itself. It turns out that, beside the visual/auditive fascination at first sight, it does not offer a different view. This stage language is significant for Serbian theatre in general, and especially for the National Theatre, but at the same time it is very risky for it can, because of the lack of a different plane, create a wrong impression about a modern European theatre. Just like Dyonisus, the play is dangerous in its seductiveness.
Ivan MEDENICA, NIN, Belgrade |
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