The review – Is it decent to look in people’s wardrobe?
The production of Bertolt Brecht’s one-act play A Respectable Wedding performed by the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade carries a clear message. People are pretending and trying to look acceptable on the outside. It is bad? Do we even have the right to know someone else’s privacy?
The wedding festivities turn all pear-shaped after a few glasses of wine. As tables and chairs break, so do relationships and secrets are revealed. Director Andrea Pjević uses the act of photography to emphasize the transformation of the whole society. Wedding guests take pictures in front of a kitschy background and smile dazzlingly. The images record the installed, artificial reality. In the future, only the father of the bride, who constantly tells stories that no one cares about, will remember the true course of the celebration – and all sorts of excesses. From the photos, it will look like the groom was dancing with the bride first, even though he chose her girlfriend instead. The glue created by the husband will keep the sticks glued together in the photos, even if they disintegrate immediately after the click.
The actors capture the basic personality traits of their characters and create people from them that even we might know. The assertive mother controls her son, the father bores everyone, the bride’s younger sister in a horrible tulle dress longs for love, the friend eventually destroys everything by revealing the bride’s secret while her husband gets drunk in the corner. Is there anyone who has not met similar types at a wedding or other family celebration?
Cheerful, fake photos, of course, represent the burning phenomenon of the social network era. The Serbian production criticizes the reality in which we all live. But it does not touch on the topic of hypocrisy, it mainly asks: does anyone have the right to look into other people’s wardrobes? Shouldn’t we accept that we know others as they introduce themselves to us? Unnecessary tears and anger can occur as soon as we learn more about ourselves. Just like in A Respectable Wedding.
Natálie Bulvasová (DAMU)