The viewers chose to be there where they talk, not only about love, but also about freedom, sacrifice and salvation - says Hadži Nenad Maričić, the author and actor of the play "Dostoevsky - my life", whose pre-premiere was held at the National Theater during the rally "We will not give Serbia".
Somehow, as soon as President Aleksandar Vučić finished his speech at the "We will not give Serbia" rally last night, just a few blocks down, on the "Raša Plaović" Stage of the National Theater, the preview of the play "Dostoevsky - My Life" began.
The auditorium was packed, even though the center of Belgrade has been closed to traffic since Friday, due to the aforementioned rally.
"The audience was in the right place on Saturday. The audience chose to be there where it was being talked about, not only about love, but also about freedom, sacrifice and salvation," director of the play, Hadži Nenad Maričić, told the "Vremena" portal.
During the protest
"Dostoevsky - my life" is a duodrama starring Hadži Nenad Maričić and Ivana Popović. He is the great Dostoevsky, and she is Anna Grigorievna Piščevna, whose memoirs were dramatized by Fedor Šili and Maričić. Pianist Stefan Ćirić is also in the performance.
Hadži Nenad Maričić is an actor at the National Theater in Belgrade, and in 2023 he was the leader of numerous protest rallies "Serbia against violence". A combination of circumstances meant that now, "Dostoevsky" was being prepared while student protests were taking place in front of the theater building.
He says that "it's just a special story. I came to the protests as much as possible, and even walked miles with students and citizens. Even before the blockade began, I supported the students and will remain so until the end. What it was like to create a play in all that, it's hard to convey on film. I'm extremely lucky that all my relatives and colleagues wholeheartedly participated in the creation of this work. I'm forever grateful to my National Theater and my colleagues who helped me get everything done on time let's finish it."
We should not forget that during the preparation of the play, there was also a strike by actors, ballet dancers and the orchestra of the National Theatre.
"Everyone's aspiration is to point out the huge systemic problems faced by employees in cultural institutions. One strike does not solve something that has been neglected for decades. First of all, the economic status of employees must be more dignified - the whole region is ahead of us," Maričić believes.
The main character – love
The play, he says, "is a story about the dedication of a woman, her sacrifice and renunciation in love. If Fyodor and Anna had not met, the creator would hardly have Crime and Punishment managed to reach those moments in the creative work in which they were created Evil souls or The Karamazov brothers".
Photo: PromoIvana Popović
One could actually say that the main character of the play is not Dostoyevsky and Anna, but love.
"Love unites those two characters. It makes them whole. We can freely say that it was Anna Grigoryevna who made Dostoyevsky complete. She freed him from all restraints and brought him a new life. That's exactly how his biographers, such as Leonid Grossman, call the chapter of the last fourteen years of his life that he spent with Anna, precisely in those words - New Life," Maričić explains.
Anna Grigorjevna "unequivocally found her meaning in dedication, in living for another. Thus, in her memoirs, she emphasizes, already at the beginning of their acquaintance, the care of the great, but also lonely, 'abandoned writer' as her task."
If it weren't for Ana
Nenad Maričić describes Anna Grigorjevna Hadži's confession as "full of tenderness, but also of great effort to break our prejudices about that great and unusual writer. When you compare her memories and Fyodor's letters, you realize that we all created an image of him based on the novels he wrote, and that the truth is completely different" and adds that his personality, "the tender and passionate character of Fyodor Mihajlovich is hidden in the characters of Mishkin, Kokkar, Dimitri Karamazov".
"Dostoyevsky - my life" is also a story about a woman "and that in the deepest, Christian sense. With the play, we celebrate not only the role of a woman, but also marriage itself. It is clear to everyone who saw the play that if the two had not endured together despite the difficult circumstances, world literature today would not have Dostoyevsky," says Hadži Nenad Maričić.
What is happening in the country and the world, what is in the newspapers and how to pass the time?
Every Wednesday at noon In between arrives by email. It's a pretty solid newsletter, so sign up!
The director of the Šabac Theater cancels the performances, and the ones starring MP Lepomir Ivković and Branislav Lečić are played. She decides everything herself
The Beldocs Documentary Film Festival came of age with a clear demand to release the activists, giving recognition to all educational and university workers.
In the frenzy of political events and dramas in Serbia, ten days ago, a spectacular multi-level event brought together academia, politics, architecture, Europe, Novi Sad, micropolitics and a top artistic event. The news that Vladan Joler, artist, professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and founder of the "Share" foundation, won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture resonated as if it were some kind of collective victory, or at least the promise of a good outcome.
If we want to talk about the freedom of a society, there must also be a social agreement and consensus regarding what we consider unfreedom, as well as what and what kind of boundaries we use to describe a society
As a special-purpose parastatal that uses metal bars to create "order and peace", Vučić is legalizing the hoodies. It is - approximately - something similar to Mussolini's "combat alliances" from 1919-1922.
Lucky that Serbia has the "Informer research team"! Dragan J. Vučićević discovered the infernal plan of "criminals" and "blockaders" at the last minute and thus saved the country again. That he is lying is less important
Keeping sociology professor Marija Vasić in prison on charges of terrorism is an anti-civilization crime. Or grotesque, whatever you want. Why don't judges, prosecutors, policemen, security guards rebel against it
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
What is happening in the country and the world, what is in the newspapers and how to pass the time?
Every Wednesday at noon In between arrives by email. It's a pretty solid newsletter, so sign up!
