site.btaHuman Instinct for Destruction Cannot be Contained, Says Theatre Director Javor Gardev

The human instinct for destruction cannot be contained or eliminated and the outbreak of violence in different parts of the Earth will not stop, Director Javor Gardev told BTA on Wednesday. Gardev staged the theatre production Pillar of Salt by the Royal Theatre Zetski dom from Cetinje, Montenegro as part of the Varna Summer International Theatre Festival.

"How far the conflicts will go depends on what we do, where we stop, whether we will humble ourselves and try to understand others", he emphasized. “We do not stop living in circumstances of tragedies and they are not only external, but also of our souls, fundamental value disputes that can lead to a very cruel aggravation of relationships and crossing of borders, as a result of which wars occur,” he pointed out.

"I think that the generational and cultural conflicts that are treated within the dramaturgical material are very similar and explanatory of our situation, but here they are placed in a radical, extreme, tragic form, with dangerous plots. This courage to go far attracted me, because when a person engages with a topic, without mitigating it with safety cushions that would soften the blow, for me there is something attractive, related to a challenge for everyone in the troupe," Gardev said.

He recalled that the tragedy aims to generate feelings of fear and compassion in order to cleanse them. "When we experience them in a virtual environment as viewers of art, they do not actually happen, but are experienced as such, and then a person could become immune to them and be wise enough not to provoke them", he stressed.

An important issue in the play is the closeness of God, which Gardev considers a serious political factor in every society. "When there is a grouping around values ​​that are under pressure, then one always goes to more fundamental issues beyond everyday ones. When class and everyday reasons are based on a fundamental dispute, the conflict becomes much more serious and is resolved by the test of a society's maturity," the director emphasized.

He believes that the audience in Montenegro is much closer to the text of the play, bearing scars and traumas from the recent past and even the present. He recalled that Cetinje was in the news a few months ago with another case of mass shooting against innocents and there are protests against it to this day. "This experience is reflected inside, as are the traumas from the Yugoslav war and they are much more acute than here in Bulgaria", Gardev noted, stressing that Bulgarians are lucky to avoid such a development as happened in Yugoslavia.

"In our country, these traumas are from an earlier era and are processed psychologically, but these conflicts are also familiar to the Bulgarian audience. It is not far from the problems of understanding and upholding traditions, the value of the family, the attitude towards God," he pointed out.

Gardev noted that the stage of the Royal Theatre Zetski dom in Cetinje is smaller than the Drama Theatre in Varna and the performance there is performed in a completely different way. The production had been shown only in Montenegro so far, where the meetings with the audience are very emotional due to its relevance and the popularity of the author. The shock, however, is the same as that experienced by the audience in Varna.

"For me, such an experience helps me, teaches me to understand my own situation and live with it, to imagine alternatives that are not associated with bloodshed. There is something that should not be crossed and in this sense a person begins to appreciate that even though he does not live in the most exemplary society, he is still lucky," Gardev concluded.