On Friday, August 2nd at 9PM at the “Poets’ Square” this year’s literary programme is to be continued. On this occasion, the monograph titled-Dreaming Awake: speaking of the theatre from this part of the world ,dedicated to the life and work of the actress Varja Ðukić, will be presented. The speakers of the “Poets’ Square” for the evening are going to be: Varja Ðukić, Aleksandar Milosavljević (theatre critic and researcher) as well as the edition’s editor and professor Janko Ljumović.
The essential chapter of the book being presented is named “Dialogue”. It is done in a form of creative interview that follows one’s train of thoughts. The text is a product of Varja Ðukić and Aleksandar Milosavljević’s creativity. In the monograph, the texts by: Milena Dragićević Šešić, Blagota Eraković, Boris Liješević, Kruno Lokotar, Vesna Čučić, Miroslav Minić and Stela Mišković, are also incorporated. There are also extensive parts dealing with theatre critics and analysis of theatre plays, theatre research, filmography and the book is additionally illustrated with photographs spanning from 1982 to 2023. The various sources of the documentary material are: The Yugoslav Drama Theatre, The Montenegrin National Theatre, The Montenegrin Royal Theatre “Zetski dom” (Cetinje), The “Theatre City” Budva, “Dah” Theatre, Culture Centre Tivat, “Atelje 212”, “Barski ljetopis” and The National Library of Montenegro “Ðurđe Crnojević”.
When talking about the book Dreaming Awake, Janko Ljumović says that it is a testimony of memories, the joint memories of an author and the book’s editor. He claims it is a sort of journal of memories that follows Varja’s work and life biography. In it, her attitudes towards her profession mixed with the social and any other component of her reality are presented. Therefore, without it being the aim when starting off, the book becomes a certain lexicon where one can find a plethora of different personalities, artistic endeavors and important institutions. They all glide perfectly into a frame of certain definitions -asserts Ljumović. Therefore ,Ljumović concludes, this book can be read as a cultural history as well as cultural geography of an area that is constantly undergoing a complex cultural transformation. From this book ,thus, it can be inferred that it is an important act of culture to make the memories last. This is all ,of course, taking as a starting point the assumption that memory serves us to wonder and discern the meaning behind some things, and therefore gain knowledge, Ljumović highlighted.
On the other hand, Božo Koprivica says that Varja’s endeavor to write a book was successful in its entirety. He called it her revelation, psalm and palimpsest. According to him, it was only a matter of time when someone with as rich a stage biography as hers would write a book of this kind. Her book is like a gift to up-and-coming actors and definitely represents a moment in time. Varja Ðukić recognized her gift early on and made tremendous efforts to develop her talents.
Varja Đukić
Varja Ðukić was born on April, 18, 1962 in Zagreb (Croatia) . She enrolled at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Belgrade in 1980 and that in the Class of the professor Ognjenka Milićević. Her essays have been published in journals and magazines in Serbia and Montenegro. Some of them are: the “Zbornik” journal (the Faculty of Dramatic Arts- a branch of the Institute for the Theatre, Cinema, Radio and Television concerned with publishing the significant selected works from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade), the “Scena” magazine (of which the main interest area is the theatrical art and the main office in Novi Sad), the “Ars” Magazine (the main focus of the magazine being politics and culture, seated in Cetinje), the “Montenegro Mobil Art” Foundation (Podgorica) and the “Guest” magazine (Podgorica).
She wrote the books Pozorišni geto and Devojčica u cveću that were published by the “CDNK” publishing house in 2000 and 2014 respectively.
She is also an accomplished writer of radio plays such as Devojčica u cveću rezede (2019) and many others broadcasted by the “RTS” radio stations.
The following theatre pieces bear her signature: Tebi iz jučerašnje (according to the motifs of the literary works by Marina Tsvetaeva performed in: the “CKZD” Culture Centre, Belgrade (1998), the “KIC” Budo Tomović Culture Centre Podgorica (1999), the Montenegrin Royal Theater “Zetski dom” Cetinje (Cetinje, Montenegro) and the “Pozorišni geto” (Pula Book Fair)), Post scriptum– written in accordance with the motifs of Danilo Kiš’s works and performed at the Montenegrin National Theatre (Podgorica, 2013), Malo o duši inspired by the motifs of Wislawa Szymborska’s verses (performed at: the Culture Centre Tivat, the Montenegrin Royal Theatre “Zetski dom” (Cetinje) and Ratković’s Poetry Nights (Bijelo Polje)- including the premiere at the Culture Centre Tivat in 2017).
The ”Theatre City” Press-Office