December 17, 2018 - The documentary play "Kotor About Kotor” (“KoTo(R) o Kotoru”) directed by Petar Pejaković and produced by the NGO Expeditio from Kotor, will be shown on Saturday, 22 December in Zadar within the festival “Artakt.”
On this occasion, we spoke with Marjan Santic, one of the creators and performers of the play, which has attracted the audience in Montenegro and the region for the last two years. Why this documentary play still lives on, and lives internationally, since it is about the town of Kotor?
The play, acted and authored by the citizens of Kotor, already had 15 performances in the hometown, Podgorica, Cetinje, Belgrade, Kolašin, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Dubrovnik and Budva. Now the crew travels to Zadar.
Wherever it was performed the play attracted considerable interest and produced entirely positive reactions of the audience and professional public, whose numerous comments and reactions have been collected within a unique evaluation of the project carried out by NGO Expeditio, followed by multiple invitations to perform the play in countries of the region and Europe. The community theatre which promotes the idea of theatre as a means for research and creative expression of each individual or a group for personal development and social engagement has proved to be a potent tool in establishing a dialogue of the participants with the audience, i.e. with a broader and closer community.
"The play shows the situation of the state and the problems of citizens who are naively trying to solve them. Unfortunately, the competent municipal bodies cannot and do not want to solve the problems in their backyard, so the citizens are forced to leave. And what are the problems? Noise from hospitality facilities, corruption, spamming, thievery, inability to function, counterfeit diploma of employees in public enterprises, political key recruitment, arthropods, ecological problems, sea and air pollution from cruise ships, apathy of institutions responsible for the protection of natural and cultural heritage - these are the problems that lie with today's society," explains one of the creators and protagonists of the performance, Kotor’s hiker and heritage protection activist, Marjan Šantić.
Why does this theatre play attract interest in the region? Why are invitations coming from many European countries?
"Kotor About Kotor is interesting because it brings the truth about our city, our country, and our environment. We all face situations where people in power and individuals who are in the account of that power are becoming richer and richer, leaving behind the interests and the welfare of the people living in the space they manage. For this reason, the audience of our play, wherever we perform, accepts it with enthusiasm, because we have expressed through the theatre play what they think. In our culture, there still survives a saying that silence is golden. We have shown exactly the opposite by this performance - it is necessary to talk about the problems, and something useful can result from it. How useful it is, we will see in the future."
In “Kotor About Kotor” uses 15 amateur actors. Even though most of the participants did not have previous experience in theatre, it was not difficult for them to present this play, to be persuasive. The reason for this is that the project participants were chosen by the love that they share about the city.
"The performance has succeeded thanks to the fact that we are all in love with our Boka, our cities and our nature. In all other issues, there are no common points among us. We are distinguished by professional qualifications, by professions, by political persuasions, by social status. In our frameworks, given the prevailing mentality, it could have been expected that we would produce a fight rather than a theatre play. However, love has overcome and overwhelmed us with all of our diversity, and that's why the performance succeeded," Marjan said proudly. Tolerance, according to him, is what we are missing in the Balkans in the family, in cities, in our societies in general, and it is a prerequisite for better days ahead.
Asked whether the international audience showed interest in the play, Marjan explains that the Expeditio team has managed to provide a translation of the text into English, enabling the viewers who do not understand our language to enjoy the play.
"Foreigners are delighted with the play. As there is a translation, they can familiarize themselves with the subject before coming to the theatre, as well as follow the text during the play. They are very interested in the topic and often after the show they share their impressions with us. Many of them intend to talk about the problems faced by their cities, their countries. It seems it could play in any country, in any language, because the problems we are talking about is not just ours. Destroying the legacy for short-term profit, pollution of the environment, corruption and the separation of the rulers from the interests of the people who entrusted them their legitimacy are the global problems of today."
"The biggest problem is silence. Silence is approval. So you do not mean the future of your children and the future of your country. If you keep silent, it means you do not want it to be better. People are invaluable in different ways and are silent. Silence is the atomic bomb of the future," says Marjan Santic.
NGO Expeditio produced Kotor About Kotor within the frameworks of two large projects, the European Artizen Initiative (funded through the EU Creative Europe program) and ACT4CITY (funded by BAC - Balkan Arts and Culture Fund). The project has also resulted in a printed and digital book "KoTo (R) o Kotoru", containing, along with the script of the play, a description of the process of play creation and several reviews and expert comments. Thanks to the help of volunteers, the play script has been translated into English.
The Kotor Tourist Organization supported Kotor About Kotor's performance at the Zadar festival. Asked when the Montenegrin audience would agai enjoy the play, Marjan couldn’t answer. He says that the show team is still playing and willing to continue with the performance, so we hope that this opportunity will be announced soon.
