Abundance of skill, lack of substance

The lights of the metropolis is famous film Charlie Chaplin from 1931. This, conditionally speaking, silent film was created at the time of the rise of tone film. Wanting to preserve his aesthetic built in the era of silent films, Charlie Chaplin inserts sounds, composes music and creates one of the best American films to date. The film was also marked by the fact that it was created during the Great Depression. That is why the film also has a social dimension. Large class differences are clearly visible among the population of the big cities - the poor, whose lives are complicated at every turn, and the selfish rich, who squander their money. This bitter social pill is wrapped in a tender and romantic story of a tramp's love for a blind flower seller and a comical subplot about a tramp's friendship with a millionaire who adores him when he's drunk and doesn't remember the tramp when he's sober. The film abounds in brilliantly designed and executed gags that logically follow from the action and the relationships of the characters - most of the gags begin as the performance of some quite ordinary and logical action, which then becomes complicated to incredible proportions. Charlie is the one who persistently insists on carrying out the action to the end, and the other characters are "victims" of his actions. Although Charlie Chaplin's film talks about many dark sides of life, it exudes great humanity and faith in love and art. At the end of the film, the flower girl who opened her own flower shop recognizes the man who helped her and whom she sincerely loves in the vagabond. Happyend is powerful, moving and compelling because it naturally emerges from the style of the film and is part of Chaplin's humanistic worldview. The lights of the metropolis is a great movie in its context, but why make it here and today like a theatrical performance?

photo: tanjug / strahinja aćimović

We didn't have a valid answer. not even before watching the play Charlie Chaplin - The lights of the metropolis, and not even after watching the play - except maybe for one! And that is that the director Nikita Milivojević wanted to introduce us to the Greek actor Prokopis Agatokleus. Bearing in mind that Prokopis does not speak Serbian, the only way for him to act in our play is either for him to play a mute character, or for the play to be without lyrics. If one is looking for a title that will be without spoken text at the same time and be widely known - it is necessary not only to introduce Prokopis, but also to attract the audience to watch an actor from Greece that they do not know - Charlie Chaplin's films can be a logical choice. Charlie Chaplin's feature films are stylistically perfect and they awaken the artist's desire to enter into a dialogue with these works. At the same time, trying to recreate the character of the hobo Charlie is a great acting challenge because it requires expressiveness, dexterity, agility and lightness of movement, and success in this intention brings sure affection from the audience.

Actor Prokopis Agathokleus responded to the request. He managed to make himself look like hobo Charlie. Also, he is physically very fit, his movement is expressive and he skillfully performs various acrobatics following Chaplin. It is important to point out that the choreographer is not signed on the cast list, but directors Amalija Bennett, Nikita Milivojević and composer Teodoros Oikonomou are signed as adapters. From this it can be concluded that the entire movement on stage was born from the cooperation of the director with the actors and improvisations during the rehearsals (the actor Dejan Karlecik, a master of stage fights, is also included in the team). This is supported by the fact that all the scenes from the film are very playful - as if everyone was happily racing to show who can do more, who can do it better, who can do it stronger. Honestly, I don't remember when I saw so many acrobatic feats performed by our drama actors. In this desire to shine on stage, the actors make ballet and acrobatic points out of gag scenes that lose connection with the logic of the plot and are often an end in themselves. It's about the joy of acting and if you're willing to let it go, it can captivate you. In that ecstasy, you will certainly enjoy the excellent music and great singing numbers (especially Vesna Čipčić should be praised). If you haven't seen the movie recently, you probably won't even notice that the social dimension is completely gone. You won't know that the poor and blind flower girl's landlord wants to evict her because of unpaid rent and that Charlie has entered the boxing ring in a desperate attempt to earn money for her. On the other hand, if watching the play inspires you to watch the movie, you'll find that the boxing scene in the movie is done with less stagecraft. muvmana, but much more precisely. Charlie Chaplin was the absolute creator of everything in his films and hardly anyone could insert anything that he would not approve of. His hobo character Charlie is the sole creator of the gag, while the other characters are only accomplices. As opposed to a movie, a play Charlie Chaplin - The lights of the metropolis owes its success to the rapturous and exhilarated collective play of all the actors who freely show what they know and can do, and the main actor Prokopis Agatokleus is only the first violin of a large, playful orchestra.

photo: strahinja aćimović / tanjug

The play also wants to pay tribute to Charlie Chaplin and his artistic achievement. That's why the frame of the story was created - shooting a silent film. The life and artistic drama that Charlie Chaplin went through while preparing The lights of the metropolis is really big and only from it one could make a representation of an artist who, wanting to be consistent with himself, goes against the mainstream. Chaplin fought very hard with himself and his collaborators to make a perfect silent film in the tone film era, and he succeeded. If you were to make a play about it, the plot of the film The lights of the metropolis it would only be the background of a new story. However, Nikita Milivojević and his collaborators only scratched the surface of the artist's life drama and quickly returned to what they were interested in, which was making a theatrical version of the famous film. That's how they created a show that the audience will be happy to watch before the New Year holidays. In addition to the guest from Greece, Stefan Radonjić, Mina Nenadović, Milorad Damjanović, Vesna Čipčić, Vukašin Jovanović, Stanislava Nikolić, Ivan Zablaćanski, Miloš Lazarov, Dejan Karlečik, Tamara Šustić, Stefan Starčević and Amar Ćorović (in alternation with Arsenija Arsić) play in the play. Theodoros Oikonomou was at the piano.