Style exercise

In a performance by the Montenegrin National Theater and the Yugoslav Drama Theater, director Branislav Mićunović, in collaboration with playwright Aleksandar Radulović and expert consultant Niko Gorščič, boldly adapted I want Henrik Ibsen, and that by reducing it to just one paradramatic situation. In a casual chat between Helmer, Nora, Dr. Rank, Mrs. Linda, and Krogstad during a smoking break at a reception - a situation that, in its conversational structure and jovial atmosphere, reminds of parlor comedies - is created by throwing in deliberately unrelated and interspersed verbal and situational leitmotifs , outlines of Ibsen's story... By the way, the claim that in this adaptation Nora reduced to the third act, which could be heard in public, is wrong: the described situation is composed of lines from the whole play (although radically rearranged and somewhat modified, almost all lines are Ibsen's) and can be placed primarily in the non-existent scene of the reception that takes place between the second and third acts.

What was achieved by this drastic adaptation? The most obvious result is a complete breakdown of Ibsen's very solid dramatic form, based on clear motivation of the characters, connected and ascending development of events, cleverly integrated intrigues (discovery of a dark secret from the past, arrival of a fatal letter), etc. However, the question arises as to what is the purpose of such a procedure dramaturgical negations: if the solid, closed and conventional form of bourgeois, realistic drama is not accepted, Ibsen should not be rewritten - only another writer should be chosen and appointed.

It seems, however, that the ambitions of the adaptation and the play based on it do not consist in the negation of a certain dramatic form, but in the thematic and meaningful sharpening and displacement. The atmosphere of general triviality and cynicism, based primarily on the characters of Dr. Rank (Predrag Ejdus) and Helmer (Vojislav Brajović), combined with occasional bursts of calm, cold and ruthless cruelty embodied in the character of the blackmailer Krogstad (Branimir Popović), offers an authoritative illustration of a morally depraved a world in which the social anomalies of Ibsen's time are accentuated to such an extent that they are almost unrecognizable - today the whole society has become one big anomaly.

Therefore, the concept of the play is reduced only to a certain sharpening of meaning, while some important shift is definitely missing: the thesis presented is that in this setting Nora it is no longer a piece about the problems of female emancipation, but about the challenges of a society in transition, it has no serious foundation. The only thing that manages to break through the dramatically unfocused salon conversation is precisely the rudimentary version of Ibsen's original story: a man blackmails a woman, her husband does not protect her from the blackmailer, the woman leaves her husband and leaves. The whole drama takes place in a short, well-acted moment when Nora (Jasmina Ranković) decides to definitely leave her husband and family.

This kind of adaptation, therefore, did not provide much material on the dramatic level, but it served as a pretext for the construction of a certain stage style. Director Branislav Mićunović consistently builds a refined, minimalist theatrical expression, based on several effective and metaphorical stage solutions: an empty space with only two "standing" ashtrays, continuous smoking (an extremely open sign that can be interpreted in different ways: as an expression of neuroticism, joviality, decadence , disintegration), Brajović's playing with his back to the audience (also an overt sign that can indicate the lie or cowardice of Helmer's world), symbolic grouping actors depending on the current interest and balance of power, etc. Along with the dramatic vagueness of the adaptation, this kind of stage language, which in principle should be supported, rounds off the impression that the play Nora Montenegrin National Theater and Yugoslav Drama Theater, however, reduces it to one ambitious, interesting but self-sufficient stylistic exercise.