Surviving men

A performance Mirandolina On Tuesday, February 24, the Center for Culture Tivat was a guest on the stage of "Raša Plaović" of the National Theater. Text of the play Mirandolina was created based on the adaptation of a well-known comedy from the 18th century Innkeeper or Mirandolina Carlo Goldoni and modernized versions of this play by the writer Peter Turini. The two versions of the play were united by Tanja Mandić Rigonat, who signed the adaptation and direction. Since the text of the Tivat play is the third version Mirandoline, we will first explain how the same story acquires new meanings through adaptation.

Carlo Goldoni wanted to reform comedy Of art which declined in the 18th century. He took over "masks", that is, types, and created characters based on the bourgeois comedies of his time, also pointing to social changes - the aristocracy is getting poorer and the bourgeoisie is on the rise. Mirandolina is an adaptation of the mask of Colombina - a cheerful and cunning maid with whom the servant Harlequin is in love. Goldoni's Mirandolina is a wise and nimble girl who successfully runs the inn inherited from her father. Because she is both smart and charming and has her own money, Mirandolina is a desirable suitor and is surrounded by an impoverished nobleman and a nouveau riche who has bought a noble title (both characters are derived from the guise of Capitano, the boastful soldier). The situation gets even more complicated when a third guest appears in the tavern, who is wealthier and more powerful than the previous two, but despises women because they are "not capable of honesty". His brash behavior is a challenge for Mirandolina. In order to show everyone his weakness, she seduces him, but in order not to be exposed and condemned as a seductress and a rascal, Mirandolina chooses the fourth among the three. She announces that she will marry her servant, who faithfully helped her run the tavern, because her father ordered her to do so in her will. With this way of seeing the plot and especially the denouement, Carlo Goldoni not only revives the failing comedy Of art but also gives ideological support to the rising citizenry - you should be proud if you have acquired wealth through hard work, respect your moral principles and not mess with the decadent aristocracy, which has either become impoverished, or behaves inflexibly, or is not an aristocracy at all, but has bought the title. In plays from the 18th century, the representative of new, civil values ​​is often precisely a smart girl who is reasonable because she is obedient to her father. He confirms his civil honor by marrying according to his father's choice, that is, according to the choice which confirms the values ​​of the civil society of that time. The Sensible Girl is an important character who heralds the emancipation of a new class and, at the same time, the beginning of the emancipation of women. Goldoni's Mirandolina is smart, hard-working, financially independent (thanks to her inheritance and her abilities), class-conscious and successful, and money is a confirmation of moral and spiritual values. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read Turni's version of the play, but based on the play I can say that Peter Turini and Tanja Mandić Rigonat follow the basic plot of the play, but put it in a more modern context, when the bourgeois class is no longer on the rise but in crisis - moral principles are neglected, and money is the only value.

The Mirandolina we see in the 21st century, represented by the director Tanja Mandić Rigonat, is not a representative of the rising class, but someone who has no inheritance, rents space and has an uncertain future. There is no protective father figure - the heroine inherited the bar not from her father but from her deceased, lustful husband. She is left to herself, her skills and the dictates of money. One of the questions that arises when it comes to modernizing pieces is what to do with marquises and counts that sound pass in the modern context. The director Tanja Mandić Rigonat wisely moved the entire action to a relatively recent and romanticized past - we listen to a sentimental song by Đorđe Marjanović about the moon and the sea, the costumes of the main actress are sewn in "glocken", the scenography by Vesna Popović is dominated by kitsch paintings of four mermaids (similar kitsch paintings were popular in modest middle-class homes in the fifties). Everything somehow "smells" like the aesthetics of movies Love and fashion i Holiday in Rome, which for the modern viewer is a notion of the sweet past, when romance was in fashion and counts, princesses and marquises seem acceptable. In relation to Goldoni's piece, the theme of women's emancipation is strongly emphasized. This Mirandolina is aware of how class and gender identity are connected. Throughout the play, she makes observations about the position of women in male society. The class conflict is exacerbated when the third suitor at the end of the play buys the premises where Mirandolina keeps the inn out of anger and throws her out. The director underlines her cheerful and fighting spirit by the fact that she goes on with her chosen one, a proletarian like herself, in spite of the brutal capitalist. In this play, Mirandolina is not only the title and the main character, but also provides the framework of the story and is its commentator. The director placed a microphone in the corner of the stage, for which Mirandolina comes first, and then the other characters, so that in a moment of sincerity they can tell us their thoughts. "Sounding" the truth can perhaps be understood as an attempt to break away from that sweet world in a Brechtian way. Too often stepping out of the role and directly addressing the audience stopped the action and slowed down the comic rhythm of the play, which is not good for comedy.

Katarina Marković plays Mirandolina. She has the charm needed for this character, and Stefan Savković's costume adds to the fact that on stage she looks like the good girl next door from the 1950s movies. But this Mirandolina behind the mask of the "good girl next door" analyzes and exposes the intentions of the men who want to dominate her and exposes the erotic-financial transaction they are aiming for. Through Mirandolina, the actress and director managed to bring to the stage some typical situations and gestures related to male-female relationships, and this recognition elicited laughter from the audience. That her Mirandolina approaches all men with the same seduction tactics may seem simplistic, but it can be defended by saying that for Mirandolina, all men are the same and therefore she approaches them in the same way.

Lazar Dragojević, the actor who plays Fabrizio, is particularly interesting. Fabrizio is a servant and a member of the lumpenproletariat who also tries to get hold of Mirandolina for her money, but he also helps her woo three boring suitors. The actor is extremely physically dexterous and agile and demonstrates this to us several times. In terms of acting, it is close to what is seen from actors who play servants in a comedy of art expected, which is physical fitness and agility - a real Harlequin, only without the mask. He is also very musical – he sings, plays and improvises. Fabrizio is presented as a former lecher and robber, and the genre of the play shifts from classic comedy to crude farce. The denouement in which Mirandolina leaves with the modern-day Harlequin can perhaps be justified by her decision to be with one who will not have the potential to limit her. On the other hand, one could also question why, if she is so self-conscious, she didn't just go off on her own. But that would break the comic base Mirandoline, and that was not the intention of the adapter and director.

Vučić Perović played the misanthrope and misogynistic Knight. When he first appears on the stage, he seems effective and the play gains momentum. He is a typical, alienated, unloved mama's boy who has a terrible need to dominate everywhere and always at all costs. That's why, when his competitors make fun of him, he turns into an enraged guy who, on a whim, destroys a pub where everyone was eating well and having a good time. Goran Slavić plays the penniless Marquis, and Goran Vujović plays the nouveau riche Count. The two had several good gags that came out of the characters they play, but in the second part of the play they were relegated to the shadows. The characters of the poor actresses Deianira and Ortensia in Goldoni carry an unusual paradox - they say that they are able to play a role on stage, but that they are completely unskilled at doing it in life, unlike Mirandolina. Lara Dragović (Dejanira) and Julija Milačić Petrović Njegoš (Ortensia) were picturesque appearances in cheerful costumes, but without space to more clearly profile their characters and social positions in the new context

That's right Mirandolina from a cheerful and instructive eighteenth-century comedy became a slightly bitter comedy about the sensitive position of a self-conscious woman in modern capitalism, with a lot of digressions on the topic of the position of women in society and every comic moment. A comedy celebrating the wit of bourgeois society from the 18th century becomes a play about the defeat of an ordinary person, that is, a woman, before the onslaught of reckless rich people. In the end, what remains is defiance and sailing in a weak boat on a restless sea, so what the hell...