Violence often begins under the radar

The latest theater direction Nebojša Bradić Silencing Socrates Howard Brenton's is about democracy, about courage, about the need to know and seek the truth, about morality, about the denial of the intellectual and similar current phenomena. Chance wanted its premiere to be right before the current rebellion of students, farmers, actors, educators, everyone who cares about living in a just society.

Nebojsa Bradić is director which analyzes society with plays and encourages it to think critically, ever since Ibsen Nore with which he started his career. He often directs three or four plays a year, many of which have won awards. Perhaps they are the most famous Damn yard, Dervish and death, The Golden Fleece, Roots, Fortress, the musical Poor people. He was the manager of the Kruševac Theatre, Atelier 212, the National Theatre, the Belgrade Drama Theatre, the Minister of Culture...

"WEATHER" It's the end of the year, time for the inevitable question - what i am, and what I didn't achieve that I should have. What would you say?? Was this year more or less successful than the last??

NEBOJŠA BRADIĆ: Considering that in just twelve months my plays were created and performed on the stages of the National Theatre, Atelier 212, Terazije Theater, Madlenianum, Bitef Theatre, KC Tivat, Kruševac Theater and Musical Theater in Sofia, it was a good year. Between them, I participated in designing the Comedy Day, organized Antika Studio and Kazankult, edited the book Method Isaac Butler and was preparing the manuscript for his book of essays A bird at a feast. Those were the stage lights. And then the light suddenly went out - my mother was gone. I was not with her, but I should have been. A dark shadow overshadowed the success.

Before the premiere of your latest play Silencing Socrates you said that the truth can never be hidden. Daily life in Serbia proves the opposite, and examples of that are from the helicopter crash to the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad. How do you explain that??

Silencing Socrates is a drama that discusses morality. In it, Socrates is not an "ideal man", but a disreputable 70-year-old who "hangs" in public places, asks uncomfortable questions and says that man should not leave the world to those who destroy us. We have a moral right to know the truth, but also a civic obligation to oppose lies. The facts are there and sooner or later, they will be available. When in old houses one layer of wallpaper is pasted over the other, even though it looks nice from the outside, it creates mold and rots. We have not forgotten the times in which civic values ​​were respected. That is why we do not close our eyes to the facts that our society suffers from corruption that has metastasized, that institutions are ravaged and decapitated, that in most media, instead of the public interest, they are guided exclusively by the interests of connected individuals and groups. Some of us remember that, if only for a short time, we had democracy. However, all this is just a moment in time, which, admittedly, has been quite long and whose end is in sight due to the frequency of tragedies we live through.

Socrates, the wisest man, in your play, the masses of the uneducated were silenced. Even today we could easily find such examples

There are many people in history who stuck out and because of that they were "shortened" by the head. Unfortunately, even today we witness various pressures, punishments, prohibitions... It usually starts under the radar, then progressively intensifies and becomes more and more visible, and then suddenly explodes with violence. Violence is triggered by verbal attacks on dissenters and on a very personal basis, thus singling out individuals who are then physically threatened and sometimes killed. In ochlocracies, violence was carried out by groups that would initiate amok and in the streets persecuted an individual who should have been excommunicated. Crowded streets provide anonymity, so no one can recognize individuals or hold them accountable. In the revolutionary upheavals, it was done by the blood-thirsty masses, in Nazism by trained groups of black shirts, today it is bloated, vulgar people with hoods - "hoodies". Online botting is a digital parallel: a bot is certainly not an educated person who thinks for himself, he hides his identity and thus avoids responsibility.

How is it possible that wisdom is not more powerful than stupidity and ignorance? The same question applies to the relationship between law and private interest.

That is definitely not possible. But it is possible to replace theses. The intellectuals themselves observed the appearance of populists and the extreme right with the conviction that it was a temporary phenomenon, a minor pain in the fabric of democracy. When the disease swept through society, they wondered in disbelief, just like you, how this was possible. Hitler wanted messages to the masses to be simple and to target the lowest levels of intelligence and education. "Bigger is better", he claimed, because "a large mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one". Sounds familiar, right? The discourse imposed by politicians - demagogues accounts for the decline of trust in institutions that, in the majority opinion, are corrupt or parasitic. The determination of such leaders encourages people's fantasies that only they should make decisions on behalf of the people. Paradoxically, these leaders are associated with enormous wealth and dubious corporations, not with modesty and hard work. In modern America, millions of people continue to support the flamboyant mogul Trump because of his crude, populist rhetoric that erases their fears of the unknown and poverty. They see him as their hero and defender, so just like him, they demonize their opponents and are ready for violence. Others, who see Trump as a narcissistic psychopath, an instigator of violence who undermines democracy and the rule of law, and commits criminal acts, can hardly understand how such a person has anyone's support. Hence the complete collapse of communication and understanding between these two parties, which turn against each other. This model is not only happening in the USA and it is not only about this president. And that sounds familiar, right?

You were the director of several theaters, even the National one. Yes your actors, without your permission, come out in front of the audience and read their association's appeal to this country to find those responsible for the tragedy in Novi Sad, how to react?

I would not prevent them and I would promptly react to any attempt to polarize. The actors and the management of the theater are the same tissue, turning against them would be like an autoimmune disease - turning against oneself. My memory takes me back to the time of the '96/97 protests. when, as the manager of the Atelje 212 theater, I led the ensemble to merge with the JDP ensemble led by their manager Jovan Ćirilov. Two ensembles joined the demonstrators in Kolarčeva street. I would have nothing to add to that even today.

The theater in Terazije canceled the performance of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the musical that you directed, in protest against the trampling of colleagues from the Philharmonic while standing on the sidewalk in front of their building, paying respect to the victims in Novi Sad. It was a gesture that would not even have been noticed in a society that knows about solidarity. And with us...

Although I am a proponent of the saying show must go on, there are moments when the muses should shut up. At the moment when they were attacked, the Philharmonic musicians stood in solidarity with the victims of the worst social negligence, which was not only their human need but also their task as artists. Because art is the one that asks questions without hesitation and fear, so there was no doubt that the ensemble Women... would ask the same questions and stand with their colleagues.

Except for the aforementioned musical, and the play Mama which you directed this year at Atelier 212 deals with a now prominent theme - women's problems. Whether the long-standing global attention to women, however justified and necessary it may be, means neglecting topics about men?

Certainly not. I do not divide the topics we deal with in the theater according to fashion, gender or gender. Mama is a show that engages, the kind of show that concerns you. That is why the topic of vulnerability and fears of a young mother is very exciting. My graduation play was Nora, in which Ibsen wrote about a woman who left her husband because he treated her like a doll, forced her to play a tarantella... So, I started dealing with the emancipation of women in the theater more than four decades ago. At the time, I thought that the play was not only written in favor of women's rights, but that it spoke of a rebellion against entrenched provincialism and the prejudices that trace it. I would like to do a few more "feminine" pieces that deal with prejudice like that. And the challenge I've been wanting for a long time would be to do "masculine" pieces such as, for example, Shakespeare's Henri IV and Ibsen's Enemy of the people. It seems to me that I would have to deal with prejudices there as well. Therefore, the picture is wider, it does not contain male and female plays, but good literature and dramaturgy.

photo: marija janković

In one of your recent texts, you wrote that we are today, more than ever, aware of the social importance of theater. Why is this not seen in practice?? Why society does not value theaters adequately to their importance?

The tradition of theater festivals in the world was that queens and kings, presidents, prime ministers and mayors, leading writers and composers came to the opening. Today, premieres feature audiences made up of celebrities – singers, presenters, sports coaches and players. And that's what happened. The theater has become a social event where it is enough to show up, take a photo and immediately run to another, perhaps more fun place. Some theaters set out to meet such an audience, trying to attract them and respond to their expectations. That in itself is not necessarily bad if it is sporadic, but real theater does not elevate but challenges those who make it and others who watch it. In order to create an adequate foundation for the work of such a theater, stable conditions should be ensured for a long period of time, which implies the development of an ensemble of excellent actresses and actors, then the creation of annual programs and an organization that will work daily with the audience and festivals. However, the question is whether theater festivals and repertory theaters will continue to have the same impact on society in the future. Many big theaters and international festivals have an identity crisis - "what are we"... "who do we communicate with".... Today, large numbers of people can travel, often very cheaply, to see plays around the world. European and world tours of musicals are organized in arenas and huge halls where close interaction between the performers and the audience is not possible. A lot has changed since the Second World War, when theaters were founded and built and festivals started.

No actor for me yet, director, the writer did not say that he does not believe that theater affects the consciousness of society. The problem is, however, in that the theater doesn't reach those who are delusional because they don't even go to shows that involve critical thinking. In the context of that fact, is it still possible to attribute the mentioned feature to the theater??

The fact that "the audience likes lighter themes" and seeks popular genres does not determine the place of theater in society. "The theater is a trap in which we will catch the king's consciousness" - says Hamlet when he meets the group of actors with whom he is staging Mousetrap. The theater is comprehensive and is often a training ground for the "war of ideas", as evidenced by the play Silencing Socrates. I am a bit taken aback by the fact that previous performances of the play have been sold out and without visible advertising and marketing. In the audience were several generations of theatergoers who carefully followed the content that is 2424 years away from us. Once again, it has been shown that the theater can successfully deal with crucial issues of society, including issues of freedom, democracy, identity, survival... Important issues of the present must be visible on our stages, and the stage should not only serve as a mirror, but should enable access to what happens "on the other side of the mirror", as Harold Pinter pointed out at the Nobel Prize ceremony.

How much was allocated for culture from the state budget when you were minister? Probably more than 0,67 percent of what is intended for her next year. What do the countries in the region know that we don't, and with them, that percentage grows from year to year?

Our goal at the Ministry of Culture was that the budget does not start with zero and, with infrastructure funds, we succeeded in that. However, due to the consequences of the world economic crisis, that budget was reduced. Later, the ministers were changed, but the budget was reduced for no great reason. Today, that percentage is below the needs of culture. If we consider that the way of spending the available funds is often questionable and does not correspond to the cultural currents in Europe, this picture is even more devastating. Comparing the cultural sector in Serbia with countries in the region is to our detriment. The money allocated in Slovenia is two and a half times higher, in Croatia the allocation for culture is 1,6 percent of the state budget with a tendency to be increased to 2 percent. Of course, not everything is about money, but we should not forget that with a little more money it is possible to encourage the development of new talents, improve the work of institutions, strengthen the creative economy and maintain the vitality of many environments that are on the periphery of cultural events. With the current culture budget, the number of cultural events will decrease, and thus the number of visitors. Let's not forget that, when it comes to smaller environments, a theatrical premiere, concert or exhibition resonates much more strongly than in a metropolis.

Oxford Word 2024. year is brain rot, brain rot, and indicates concern about the impact of an excessive amount of poor quality, trivial and banal online, but also other content. How to protect yourself?

Daily online engagement wastes energy and focus, resulting in a breakdown in concentration and increased addiction. Instead of using available knowledge, things are marketed as completed activities where nothing needs to be discovered. There is a constant invitation to move to the side that someone else invisibly controls and conducts. An individual can take a quixotic action: "I won't do it anymore!" Thus, he would end up in a somewhat absurd situation - he would "hang" in the environment without knowing what is happening around him. The choice, therefore, resembles the Dark Province. If we are not talking about limiting or abolishing the use of mobile phones, my recommendation is cultural content. In a museum, theater or cinema, you can immerse yourself in the contents and, with the sounds, words and images of the great masters, regain your lost concentration.

You recently hung out with the students of the Aleksinac High School. What did you learn from them?? Do you get the impression that we are, adults, able to learn from the young?

At the theater lecture, I again met the students and professors of the Aleksinac High School. Their interest, active attention and concentration give me the conviction that there is a potential that we are often not sufficiently aware of. I think it is very important to develop centers of creative excellence across our country. Artists of all disciplines should work in these environments, creating works that will enrich our culture and change the appearance of local environments. There are many talents among young people and those who were lucky among them have already performed at Kolarac and other stages. Others should be allowed to begin their education in the communities in which they live and thus begin to do wonderful things. Last year, the high school students from Aleksinac surprised me with their interpretation of the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, and this year they are preparing something even more demanding: Ibsen's A doll's house. Instead of the advice usually given to young creators - to do what they know, I told them: "Develop your imagination when you're young."

Besides a book of essays, what are you planning in 2025?? And how much influence do you have on achieving what you planned?

In the turbulent times we live in, I stay away from more ambitious announcements. I can safely rely only on myself and my loved ones. That's why I write. A book of essays A bird at a feast, which will be published by Sterija's Theater in the spring, should be understood as a director's testimony about the joy of a theater man who lives a theatrical feast and devotes part of his creative gift and a good part of his life to the theater. The texts were created as a result of the need to react to concrete everyday challenges, but they are not burdened by daily use. From other plans, I am looking forward to the masterclass workshops that await me in Greece and Bulgaria in the summer. I hope that reason will prevail, first of all in Serbia, and in the world, and that I will maintain them.