The moment you hear the first line being uttered on the small theatre stage which, in the form of a space, is meant to represent and resemble our so-called home, the one that fulfils all our everyday needs, but with universal functionality, you feel completely overwhelmed by the play script of the young author Adnan Lugonic, which, even with no additional effects, totally stripped off and completely essential, leads you through the characters of one family – a father and two sisters, while the atmosphere, created by the young director Nina Nikolic, consists of authentic life tension and a big secret that are inevitable part of the real life situations, whereas in the modern theatrical realism, they may not often surprise you or skilfully guide you through the labyrinth called life.

It’s all about life on stage, the family life, because life itself obviously writes stories and it is this particular story, which seems to be cut out of life with invisible scissors and put on stage. It’s about life that probably hurts most, the family life, which may remind us, as viewers, of the family values ​​and flaws we have forgotten or suppressed, due to social circumstances. That’s why theatre is here to remind us.

Accordingly, as we are trying to cut off our ancestral roots, without which, unfortunately, we obviously cannot survive healthily in social circumstances or remain successful and prosperous, we can see all the characters of this family who are, in a desperate or tragicomic way, striving to assemble pieces of the broken glass which symbolizes their broken and dysfunctional family, that are related to the life cycles, to the past traumas, to the physical advantages and disadvantages at every age.

Situations of dramatic conflict, when all three characters collide with different individual traumas, have been resolved in a sophisticated and modern way, without excessive tone of aggressive emotion, which is frequently present in the situations of conflict in many contemporary theatrical performances, so that the characters become the types who convey the message: we should all live in the present, no matter if it makes us successful or not.

The father character (Sasha Handzic), as the backbone of the family, is a typical example of a limited person in terms of his psycho-physical condition, which depends on how the others treat him; the character of Masha (Darja Rizova), who has inherited family responsibilities for her father despite her individual dreams for the future; and the character of her sister Nina (Dzenana Dzanic), a typical example that everyone has the right to life having responsibility for it: all these characters, in a peculiar and authentic way – as antagonists, defend their life thesis and conduct their lines perfectly, reason with each other, not interfering in other character’s territory. This is clearly a smart selection of cast guided by the director.

It all has been wrapped up in realistic and sound images by the director, but in the minimalist manner in which she immaculately conducts the so-called atmosphere of home, with a background sound, as well as with a typical painful and family picture (realistic) where everyone gathers trying to stay together and create an unreal fairy tale. This kind of reading of the script allows you to focus on the playwright and the acting, not extorting any emotions from you, because they are to a great extent expressed by the playwright himself, honestly experienced and properly conveyed by the entire creative team.

Zvezdana Angelovska
First-class actress at Macedonian National Theatre – Skopje