By: Stela Mišković

Having gained shape without an actual text, through mutual improvisations and building of relationships and the text itself, based on an idea and structure developed by director Selma Spahić, „Purple“ unmasks the myths that have been perpetuated (by Balkan peoples in particular) about family and about relationships within the family.

By means of a perfect adjustment of realism (naturalism for that matter) and irrationality, through the cohesion of the concrete and abstract, we stand face to face with ourselves and the demons that could emerge to the surface in no time without us even being aware of it.

An urban family. A widowed mother, her three children and her pregnant daughter-in-law come together to celebrate the Mother’s birthday. Through a perfectly and spontaneously flowing dialogue, the various topics that unfold simultaneously provide us with an insight into characters and backgrounds that will resonate in our heads once the Change occurs.

The mother cult that has been cherished for centuries is now being deconstructed before our eyes with subtle directorial tools. This prism through which the director portrays the relationship with the Mother, with someone close or with people in general is not the prism we are accustomed to. This angle is completely new to us and the fact that it is new goes on to show how hypocritical we are as a society, in other words, how unaware we are, how fictitious this self-admiring, self-proclaimed struggle for our own and other people’s freedom is and how narrow our „broad-mindedness“ really is. The very fact that, among other things, this play discusses a concept for which there is no word in our languages, namely „ageism“ (discrimination against older adults or age-based discrimination) speaks volumes. What is the moment in which our voice is no longer heard? In which our voice becomes meaningless and in which others start making decisions in our name?

„Purple“ discusses the freedoms we conquer and the manners in which we conquer them. It discusses the effects that this conquest has on others. The tendency of „resentment“ and shaping the fate of others to our own liking and understanding, the prejudices and stereotypes are intensified by the fact   that they are being portrayed through a person, i.e. through a relationship from which we, by default, expect nothing less than everything, at all costs and at all times. This very complex relationship (mother-child) also reveals the plagues of patriarchy, i.e. once again, we are faced with the truth as to how deeply patriarchy is rooted in our psyche, in our being. For a Mother has no right to be anything else than a Mother. A mother who comforts us, cooks for us, does our laundry and ironing, supports us in everything, who teaches us about life and at the same time, who is pretty and well put together. This last criterion is referred to in the scene in which the daughter reproaches the mother for not dressing up – how inconsiderate of her, now that they’re all gathered together disregarding the fact that the mother spent eight hours cooking and getting things ready for them.

Once Purple enters the stage, everything changes. Despite being portrayed as the Mother’s significantly younger lover so as to reveal the reactions of the vulture-like children and their inability to come to terms with their Mother who freed herself from the shackles, with the Mother who, besides being a Mother, is also a woman and a human being, we come to realize that it is just a metaphor and that, on a metaphysical level, Purple is actually the Mother’s alter ego, her freedom, her identity, her life happiness. Purple is the Mother herself.

As the plot progresses and the truths emerge from ever deeper holes, the relationships between the Children and the Mother become more brutal and uncontrollable. The atmosphere on the stage resembles an insane sadistic party, an orgy of violence in which the children savagely terminate their Mother’s happiness and freedom, whilst she’s struggling to keep the happiness alive, which was very tenderly executed by the director and which is reflected in the looks and the subtle and synchronized stage movement of Purple (Davor Golubović) and Mother (Tatjana Šojić).

Tatjana Šojić develops her role as Mother with incredible skill, confidently managing her emotional, vocal and physical acting tools. She skilfully follows the directorial concept so as to gain complete control and autonomy over her character. The other members of the cast (Maja Izetbegović, Boris Ler, Sabit Sejdinović, Ana Kraljević) embody the family members, i.e. our very selves and all the atrocities we commit under the pretense of good intentions in an invigorating and stylistically balanced manner.

Bearing in mind the fact that this play is performed on the stage of the Chamber Theater, it is important to note the distinctive physical proximity of the performers and the audience. The effect of this physical proximity is particularly pronounced when the actors tear down the fourth wall and stare at us intensively and persistently, making us either their accomplices or silent observers. Both these roles fill us with terror. The aim of this immediacy is to make the spectators engage more intensely in the plot and to encourage a critical observation of the world.

Through the actual, spatial narrowness of the stage, Adisa Vatreš Selimović’s stage design contributes to the overall impression of mental narrowness. Later, by transforming the space into a „cemetery of purple“, similar to the dramaturgical and directorial approach taken (dramaturge Emina Omerović), she created a bridge between the realistic and the wondrous aspects of this play.

Draško Adžić’s music is indeed an equal participant in the play as it actively and suggestively contributes to the play’s dense atmosphere to the point of becoming the „Purple’s“ very tissue.

It is with  exceptional courage, vividness and incentive that „Purple“  explores the spaces of freedom and interprets its ambiguity in a semantically dense, dedicated and inquiring manner, making us painfully face the things we carry in ourselves as well as the fact that it will take a lot of effort to overcome the need to enchain that freedom.