In 2015, famous film and theatre director Goran Markovic has, for his first cooperation with Opera and Theatre Madlenianum, chosen the play Little Secrets, an intimate piece about acting beginnings of his parents. It is important to point out that this is the first musical play, at the original music of Zoran Simjanovic, directed by Markovic at the theatre.
The subject of interest of this play is the theatre troupe, drama group that really existed, created before the end of the Second World War and acting during the war and after it, being the driving force of Belgrade Drama Theatre in its famous years and which broke up before the end of fifties, immediately after its taking part in creation of a new theatre- Atelier 212. The audience follows the creation of this troupe, its development and top and finally, when it ceases to exist, we say goodbye to it.
„This story is based on true events, but simultaneously it is combined with a plenty of fictitious events. Since we thus combine factography with fiction, the heroes of this play are not the real personalities. Although our role models have been the names that really existed, most of the characters have been modified to such an extent and mixed with the issues that are the products of our imagination, so we cannot talk about the historical credibility”, emphasizes the director.
“The way we are going to tell this story is appropriate for dramatic form: we will deal with individual destinies of its protagonists, but we will simultaneously observe what happens with society during that twenty-year period. Certainly, we shall be interested in the very phenomenon of the theatre, acting and the attitude of the authorities towards that art. But, in the first plan shall be actors, their lives, artistic development, intimacy, love troubles and everything that makes life behind a theatre curtain. Besides the main protagonists, the members of the theatre group, there is a variety of important characters, from patrons, over acting teachers, German occupiers and others…”
In parallel with the story development, the events are accompanied by popular hits of the era. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that “Little Secrets” are as well a kind of the retrospective of pop music in the period from 1939, when our story begins, during the war and German occupation, up to 1958 when the series finishes. The music songs are incorporated into the story, but simultaneously they are the tracks for themselves.
LITTLE SECRETS – The Play with acting, singing and dance
Text and Directing: Goran Markovic
Music: Zoran Simjanovic
Choreographer: Mirko Knezevic
Set Design: Nebojsa Bradic
Costume Design: Dragana Ognjenovic
Casting: Predrag Ejdus, Vojin Cetkovic, Srdjan Timarov, Petar Bencina, Rade Cosic, Andrijana Oliveric, Branislava Podrumac, Miodrag Radonjic, Milos Andjelkovic, Tihomir Stanic, Andrija Kuzmanovic
Band: Hot Club Belgrade