NETA News

Freedom is an eternal theme, which, even more so nowadays, is crucially important, provocative, and vexed, said a Montenegrin critic after the “Everyman Dilas” by Radmilla Vojvodic premiere at the National Theatre of Podgorica. The play will have a single representation on September 1^st, 2015, at the Studio Hall of the National Theatre of Bucharest, within the 2015 NETA International Theatre Festival (August 28 – September 4).

Milovan Dilas (1911-1995), a remarkable personality with a decisive role in the history of the new Yugoslavia, revolutionary, politician, party activist, and Montenegrin writer, has the central part in the play. For his brave critical spirit in society less permissive with free speech, the first part of Dilas’ life was a balancing act between freedom and deprivation. He made his entrance into politics as an illegalist, persecuted by the monarchical government for his left-wing beliefs, and becomes close to the Tito regime and a member of the Central Committee of the Party and Political Bureau. After a short while, Dilas rises as one of its the most ferocious critics, both at home and abroad, quickly suffering a severe backlash. His books were printed abroad, while in his country jail gates close behind him often and for long periods. Even as calm settles, the Western world sees Dilas as a dissident and a hero, while being a controversial character in his own country, spending his remaining days under surveillance.

In her play, director Radmilla Vojvodic focuses on Milovan Dilas’ universe and the consequences of his work, “The Anatomy of a Moral” and “The new class”. The latter is one of the most influential books of the XXth century, a ruthless analysis of the communist system, the reign of a new class and of a new regime, based on arbitrariness and terror.

Everyman Dilas is a call to possible and impossible, to our courage, ability, and risk to create, to become the creators of our own destiny despite any obstacles. The Everyman, a classic medieval term, and especially the everyman moral values, are appealing to the ethics of the modern man in the play, as gaining our freedom today is an act of scruples. (Borka Pavicevic)

Radmilla Vojvodic built her play as a documentary in which characters are both historical people and fiction. Together with the Berlin Wall, a utopia collapsed. In addition, under the pressure of the events, so did the Yugoslavian utopia. What is our utopia, which is the utopia of the modern world, who are its creators and heroes, its supporters? – asks the creator of the show, her voice now valued in the theatrical life of the former Yugoslavia. Esteemed director and dramaturge, reputed pedagogue, rector of the Montenegrin University, vice-president of the Academy for Science and Art, Radmila Vojvodic’s career has been crowned with numerous awards and some of the most important national awards.

A play in five acts, with a total duration of less than two and a half hours, each representing just the tip of the iceberg, a fifth of its body. Four fifths of its meaning and potential lay just beneath the waves…