The second performance played on a new Belgrade stage – “Bel étage” stage in the Opera and Theatre Madlenianum – has definitely confirmed the existence of the stage. As it was originally a gallery, the stage could be considered somewhat alternative. Its original purpose influenced its new interesting concept – it is to host only performances about famous painters. Last year, we had an opportunity to see a performance about Frida Kahlo while only recently another performance, about El Greco, based on the TV drama by Andrej Hieng, a Slovenian author, was also premiered.

The directress Anja Suša and her stage designer Igor Vasiljev have organized this theatrically unstructured space with great creativity and carefulness. Led by the exceptionally intimate tone of the Hieng’s text which, as the author clearly states, aims not at authenticity or complexity in its representation of the great painter’s life and times, they set up a small intimate stage next to the audience. The stage is structured through a set of white canvass panels which resemble Japanese architecture and which move around thus sectioning the area into various segments. This dynamic spatial interplay metaphorically indicates the media origin of the Hieng’s texts, the TV play, but also one of the general aesthetic issues in painting – the one of composition. Apart from that, white empty canvasses as the main element of the stage design in this minimalistic performance metaphorically set forth one of its main topics – El Greco’s creative crisis in his late years.

As it has already been pointed out, the author himself claims the lack of any “biographical aspirations” while stating that he has “casually borrowed El Greco’s destiny”. What he is, however, focused on is the universal question of the loss of belief in one’s own art, the generator of the painter’s art and spirituality. This central dramatic conflict, expressed through El Greco’s monologues in front of his models and through the dialogue with a church representative, also has a secular aspect which contributes to its complexity: namely, the painter’s wife sees her husband’s intimate, aesthetical and theological conflict as a reflection of his egocentricity, as a lack of care for people around him, including his son who leaves home.

In order to emphasise the main conflicts and the problems thus ensuing, the directress Anja Suša introduced certain dramaturgical changes. One of the most prominent ones is the reduction of El Greco’s hostile family environment by removing the character of his brother Manuso, while keeping his wife’s aunts who lose any individual features whatsoever. In this performance, they metaphorically represent an oppressive and conservative society, which is successfully articulated by the appropriate costumes (designed by Maja Mirković) and the style of acting: they wear almost identical, lavish and excessively stiff dresses which belong to the crinoline époque while behaving like grotesque mechanical dolls; Juana (played by Jelica Vučinić) has been created in a more balanced way than Ignes (by Elizabeta Đorevska).

When it comes to crinolines, it should be noted that this clothing item is brilliantly metaphorically exploited by the directress in the scene of conflict between El Greco and his wife: Heronima’s spiritual breakdown in her conflict with her husband is accentuated by her physical “breaking”, bending and twisting in her stiff crinoline and, eventually, falling into it like into a dungeon of the soul.

Contrary to the stylized characters of the aunts, the symbols of the conservative society, and the choreographed character of El Greco’s model Stutterer (played by dancer Dušan Murić) who, logically, does not speak in the play, the characters who carry out the main conflicts are represented in a realistic manner; El Greco, Dominican Kargana, and Heronima. Anđelika Simić creates the character of Heronima as a tragic victim of her husband’s art; while Ivan Tumić shows Kargana as a composed and therefore more dangerous representative of the Holy Inquisition. In his creation of the leading character, actor Nebojša Dugalić started somewhat too elaborately but then subsided and presented El Greco’s inner and outer conflicts in a moderate and confident way. There is just one aspect which he did not manage to present and that is an old man’s sentimental yet cynical reminiscing about his life’s achievements. Naturally, that is not the actor’s mistake; it is not his fault that he is younger than the character he plays. A more significant dilemma remains after this cultivated and thought-through performance – why has the directress decided to rejuvenate the main character and thus diminish one of the most relevant dimensions of this play – Lear-like contemplation at the end of life. It could quite possibly be that she was more concerned with the topic of artistic crisis which is not age-specific, than the topic of the final life reminiscence.

Beyond Stereotypes

Andrej Hieng/Anja Suša, Madlenianum, stage “Bel Etage”
The play “Burlesque about the Greek” (1969), written by Andrej Hieng, deals with a day in the life of El Greco. Starting from a particular case study, the author explores general issues of intensive creative crises, and the artists’ relationships with their families, society, art, religion.
The performance directed by Anja Suša is small and very stylized. The stage is striking, bare and defined in white colour (stage designer Igor Vasiljev). The stage is divided in movable white canvasses, which makes it possible to have fast change of scenes and to alter the depth of stage; all of that resembles the expression typical of TV and film, editing and various shots/reverse shots, which stems from the fact that the text is, actually, written for television. The costumes are luxurious (by Maja Mirković), the music ethereal and striking, illustrative of the main protagonist’s emotional states (composed by Vladimir Pejković).
Nebojša Dugalić plays El Greco in an energetic manner, as a tragic man, but with traces of grotesque, which adds to the issue of the painter’s tragic character. The actor is inspired in his representation of El Greco’s various mental states: general scepticism towards people, rage towards his model, Stutterer, created in minimalistic and salient manner by Dušan Murić, and, finally, destructive despair. The small size of the space is also put in function so Dugalić occasionally plays among the audience, adding thus further emphasise to the already existing closeness. Anđelika Simić creates the character of El Greco’s wife Heronima, combining psychological realism and stylization. While talking to El Greco about marriage and their common future, about inevitable end of their love and the routine which will takes its place, Anđelika Simić keeps revolving in a brisk, mechanical manner. This mannerism expresses not only universal nature of the problem but also Heronima’s deeply rooted restlessness which thus becomes metaphorical.
Heronima’s aunts, stupid, hypocritical women, are played by Jelica Vučinić (Juana) and Elizabeta Đorevska (Ignes). Both are presented in an artificial manner – dressed in luxurious white dresses, without makeup on their white faces, they walk around in an illustrative, grotesque, doll-like fashion. This contributes to an exciting presentation of what they are all about – their limited minds and permeating evil makes them the monsters they are. This kind of stylistic approach in the making of characters is far more valuable and more complex than the conventional, realistic method. Ivan Tomić is very successful in his creation of frère Kargan, whom he plays in an even, almost impersonal manner, which is to be taken as his utter cynicism, especially when he preaches El Greco on the sinful idea of faith as pure individualism which implies a mercenary imperative of service towards the church and the community.
The performance “Burlesque about the Greek”, directed by Anja Suša, is strikingly directed, superbly acted, and filled with stimulating ideas on art, family relations, region and politics; moreover, it is far from a stereotype and yet not pretentious, and therefore different than the majority of the performances about lives of artists.
Ana Tasić
Published in Politika, 12th April, 2007