Miroslav Krleža's most famous drama, Messrs. Glembays, which was written and performed in 1929, is a relatively often performed piece in our country. In 2002, it was directed by Egon Savin in SNP, and in 2009 by Jagoš Marković in Atelier 212. Branislav Mićunović directed a play at BDP at the beginning of the season Charlotte Castelli which is inspired Glembays. Danilo Marunović posted To Mr. Glembayeva less than two months ago in CNP. The latest premiere of this play was on Saturday, February 8, at the Sombor National Theater directed by Gorčin Stojanović. Messrs. Glembays are extraordinary theatrical treasures that do not lose their value over time. It is a play with a precisely set and managed conflict, "fat" characters and a unique language. Even "middle roles" in the piece like Sister Angelica, lawyer Puba, priest Silberbrandt, can be significant acting achievements, and playing Ignat Glembay, Leon Glembay and Baroness Castelli-Glembay are great moments for any acting career. This is, in the best sense of the word, a well-written piece that successfully combines the values of realistic Scandinavian dramaturgy to Ibsen and Strindberg about the dark family legacy and the elements of then-popular expressionism - the conflict between father and son, the fatal woman, the subconscious that destroys the hero... How was this play played in NP Sombor?
Director Gorčin Stojanović did not Glembaye set as a piece of psychological realism in which the atmosphere is important: night, storm, power outage, conflict between father and son under candles, morning and birds in the scene of the denouement... In the didascalia, the writer precisely described the stage space, indicating the opulence in which the Glembays live. Their conservative but refined taste places them in the era just before the beginning of the First World War. Instead, the director, who is also a scenographer, opted for minimalism and non-realism: the play takes place on a white podium surrounded by the black surface of theatrical "darkness". Actors in black and white costumes look like chess pieces (Lana Cvijanović's costume). That minimalism and symbolism is not necessarily wrong, but what is wrong is that the only details on that white surface are the black bar stools. We understand why he chose black chairs on a white floor - the actors look good sitting on them, the chairs are easy to move... The only problem is that you can see that the chairs are cheap. It is difficult for actors to play luxury, tradition and refinement if the scenography denies them. Secondly, in such a scenography, the director's approach to the characters must be very precise and without noise, and there were unclear directorial procedures that obscure the meaning of the piece. It's fine that Leone is dressed in black (against the whiteness of the podium and the false moral purity of the Glembays), but why is his suit wrinkled and why is he barefoot? Well, he lives on rent like all the Glembays! Also, the written ending is not clear either. Why do actors appear with cloths on their faces? Why is Sister Angelica in civilian clothes and pregnant at the end of the play? Perhaps the director was inspired by famous painters, Krleža's contemporaries, and perhaps he wanted to go beyond the scope of the drama by referring to Krleža's other literature and find happy end for Leon and Angelica. But instead of trying to insert what is not in the piece, it would have been better if he had tried to answer the basic questions of the piece.
One of the main questions of this piece is why Leone is the real Glambay even though he doesn't want to be. What is "Glembayism"? Is it just moral decadence, psychological weakness or is there something else? Much has been written about Leone's instability and hypersensitivity. However, from today's perspective, it seems that the most interesting thing is that the Glembays insist that they are always right, that theirs must be the last, and that they are ready to trample a man to get theirs. This is very well seen in the character of Leon. From the beginning of the piece, we follow how he becomes more and more brutal from scene to scene. Although he supposedly doesn't agree with their opinions at all, Leone has to humiliate the guests in order to prove to them that he knows more about art and family history than they do. Then, when the secondary motive of Canjekova's murder is introduced into the play, Leone must prove to Puba that lawyering is not justice. Leone then destroys the priest by saying out loud that he knows the priest is Baroness Castelli's lover, not caring if anyone hears him. In the finale of the piece, Leone has a terrible confrontation with his father, who is just like him - one Glambay must always be right and his must be the last. No matter how delicate, sensitive and tender he is, Leone simply cannot bear not to come out victorious in every verbal duel. From the beginning, the writer talks about suicides in the family, and then he makes an unexpected but logical turn - although it seems to us that he is prone to suicide, Leone Glembay kills his father with words, and his stepmother literally.
Actor Marko Marković believably plays the sensitivity of Leon, while Leon's vanity and need to humiliate others are pushed to the background. Fortunately, he is helped in this by his colleagues Miloš Lazić (Puba) and Nemanja Bakić (Silberbrandt), who consistently play two demagogues in the service of old Glembay. Miloš Lazić's pub gives itself importance by making noise. Nemanja Bakić plays Silberbrandt as a poisonously calm man until Leone discovers him. Both actors could have made their characters more distinct, but they didn't do that, instead moving in the realm of what was expected and necessary for those characters. It would have helped them if we had seen that Leone Glembay can be harsh in argument and cruel when someone begs him for mercy. Ana Rudakijević was pale as Sister Andjelica and it is completely unclear why the director took her off at one point. It seemed like another director's comment on a work of art. But that scene, apart from being a pretty picture, didn't really contribute to the main thing, which is to clarify why Leone is looking at her with boyish admiration and whether she likes him. Ivana V. Jovanović played Baroness Castelli. Ivana is in To Mrs. Olga i To the wax men has already shown that she can play a strong and manipulative woman. However, Baroness Castelli must also be a woman with great "erotic intelligence". She comes on the scene with an officer who, in the play, is twenty years her junior and is the lover of a priest who is at least ten years her junior. Ivana is very good in the scene when, over the dead old Glembay's body, she is allegedly honest with Leon. It's a good idea for Leone and Baroness Castelli to kiss by the corpse, but has she just seduced him with her supposed sincerity? The relationships between the characters are not set up so that we understand what her erotic intelligence is. The costume didn't suit her either. Baroness Castelli must be a woman whose appearance takes everyone's breath away.
The best scene in the play is the scene of the big conflict between old Glembay (Saša Torlaković) and his son Leon. Together with his colleague Marković, Torlaković made an effort to clearly portray the conflict between father and son, who are different in temperament, but have the same fixed idea that they are always right. That overbearing man full of himself is well played by Torlaković. There's a good moment when the two of them drink whiskey together - it seems like it's some kind of friendly male game between them. They are similar - they are both capitalists. Old Glembay lives by processing garbage and making weapons, and young Glembay exploits black people in Africa. They don't value people who don't have money much. It is true that Leone bought a singer machine for the unfortunate worker, but both agree that it is a mere trifle for them. What they have in common, apart from their contempt for those below them, is that they want to be on top alone and to be right even when they are clearly wrong. This is the reason why the "game" gets out of control and becomes really cruel. Something should have been done with the father-son fight scene, and it would have been wise to have avoided the strangulation of the Baroness - those moments of "full contact" on the stage never seem believable, and it is important for the audience to be completely with the characters in those scenes. Language is also important for Krleža's piece. It is a mixture of German, Italian, Latin, English and Croatian. These are all different inheritances of the Glembays. The actors managed with that language as well as anyone. Fortunately for the show, the actors with bigger roles were more convincing.
Nevertheless, despite the problem of collision of concept and text, we must point out how this play confirmed that To Mr. Glembayeva should play. The play is about people who trample the poor in the street and pass before the courts without any punishment. These are the types for whom the fact that an old woman was trampled on and that a pregnant woman threw herself from the roof of their mansion (with a baby in her arms) is just an inconvenience that the opposition press makes them feel bad about. If there is "money", they can live with murders and suicides and frauds, and only when the money runs out, chaos and a sudden death will arise. Don't touch their stolen money, and everything else will more or less survive. That's why they are Messrs. Glembays still a relevant piece today.
