IN
THE DARKNESS OF ROBESPIERRE’S POCKET
GLAS. Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina. January
26, 1990. Conversation before the opening night
“This performance, as any other performance that
I have directed in various theatres all over our country
by now, is a personal reinvestigation of the nightmares
in which we all live today, and is a personal confrontation
with my self creating in this society. It is my personal
revolt and protest, my disagreement with the dehumanization
of the individual, my disagreement with his or her depersonalization.
It is also my protest against the violation of the individual’s
human right to have his or her own human face, and finally
a protest against the violation of individual freedom.”
says Naum Panovski, the director of “R”
[it stands for Revolution] by Jordan Plevnesh which
will open on February 3 this year at the National Theatre
of Bosanska Krajina in Banja Luka.
The conversation with Naum Panovski, who is directing
his third performance at the National Theatre of Bosanska
Krajina takes place during the intermission of the television
broadcasting of the most exciting and most tragic events
these days - the XIV Congress of LYC. These events and
the global situation in the country, as well as his
production of “R” did not offer too much
optimism. But on the other hand this conversation has
rich and interesting observations and thoughts.
The production that you are working on now deals with
the possibilities of the revolution. Do you think that
it is still an inspirational subject?
It is clear that we live in a very dramatic period which
deeply affects our country. We are on the crossroads,
almost sinking dawn in the mud, not knowing and refusing
to know where shall we go and what shall we do. So,
while we are having this interview our country is falling
apart like a house of cards. And this disintegration
is not a will or fault of our country’s peoples.
This is done by those who hold the power in their hands
and who manipulate the people, those who would like
to protect only their own political power and to remain
on the top of the pyramid. They have brought us, the
country as a whole, to this condition, in which we are
at the moment, in this mud, and we have become just
an anus mundi. The performance that I am directing
now is only a reflection of this painful process of
disintegration. The production deals with the revolution
which is spent, which is betrayed, which is a part of
the political manipulation of the people. In fact, the
performance makes clear statement that what is left
of the great dream of freedom, of tolerance, of a better
world, of a world based on justice and a world with
a human face is just an ugly R. Instead of freedom their
promises turned to brutal rape of the reality and everything
opposite of our hopes. In so doing, from Robespierre’s
dark pocket a small fat tyrant with black mustache came
out and spread out a darkness over our lives and souls.
And that is what is going on right now. With bleeding
hearts and souls we are all pushed down into this boiling
pot of intolerance, animosity, and hatred. And being
divided we are forced again to pull out the knives,
to stab our brothers hearts, to dig out eyes, to die
for someone else’s stupidity and to push others
to die in mass graves.
In spite of this you do not respect this divisions.
You are a director from Macedonia who directs almost
in the heart of Bosnia and Hercegovina?
Bosnia is my country in the same way as Macedonia is,
And fortunately enough or not I grew up as a citizen
whose country is from Maribor to Gevgelija and from
Dubrovnik to Subotica, whose country is the world. In
that context my nationality is not my primary concern.
I am a human being by birth, while a Macedonian by accident.
In your performance the main character is an actor who
plays Robespierre. How does Robespierre become the dominant
character in the performance?
As I am concerned, Robespierre is a dark dot or a part
of the dark European history today. Robespierre’s
dogmatism in contemporary Europe is definitely dead.
This “European Spring” which we all see
and feel around us is that optimistic prospective which
opens our horizon of hope in search for a more human,
tolerant and democratic society that we all need so
much.
From our conversation until now, it seems that R is
a political performance. I personally see it as a personal
drama. How do you define it?
The theatre has been always political. From its beginnings
with Aeschilus to today it has that dimension. In that
context R is a performance about an intellectual who,
while playing the character of Robespierre, becomes
trapped in Robespierre’s despotic web. The actor!
intellectual realizes that the horizon offered to him
by his character is only a horizon of terror, tyranny,
violence and darkness. This produces a rejection of
the character he portrays. In that struggle with his
character and under the influence of our bloody revolutionary
history, in which his family is victim, the actor tries
to confront his character with Danton’s horizon,
with a vision of the future which is tolerant, humane
and which offers hope. But this chaos in which we all
live now, this closed vision limits and destroys this
hope. Why? Because our politicians have misused, manipulated
and pushed the people in quarrels and confrontations.
They have already opened the doors for a civil war in
which brother kills brother. Their knives are pulled
out and they are sharpening them.
Let us come back to the field of theatre.It seems that
“R” continues from the spot where your ”Metastabile
Grail” stopped. Why?
This performance can be considered as a continuity of
the pervious one only in the sense that it treats the
same problem in different circumstances. That is the
confrontation of the artist with the totalitarian society
and with its violent appearance. Namely, it is about
the artist’s struggle for a life with a human
face through that confrontation and finally it is about
artists permanent defeat with these evil forces. But
it is a real fortune that in this case the artist’s
work remains while the bad politicians sooner or later
are forgotten and disappear. I am sorry that our politicians
reffise to understand that the prosperity in history
is made by imagination and beauty not by their will
for power.
Your performances produced here had enormous success
both among the broad audience and among the critics.
Do you expect the same success again?
I have never been looking for a success in an ordinary
meaning of that word. I was looking always for the theatre,
for the stories deep in myself and that is basically
what I have been doing all my life. This performance,
as any other performance that I have directed in various
theatres all over our country by now, is a personal
reinvestigation of the nightmares in which we all live
today, and is a persona! confrontation with my self
creating in this society. It is my personal revolt and
protest, my disagreement with the dehumanization of
the individual, my disagreement with his or her depersonalization.
It is also my protest against the violation of the individuals
human right to have his or her own human face, and finally
a protest against the violations of individual freedom.
This is the context of this performance.
Svetlana Siljegovic
