WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN?

The rehearsals of the new drama project WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN? are in progress at the Opera and Theatre Madlenianum. The work of the famous French writer Eric- Emanuel Schmitt, translated by PhD Nikola Bjelic and directed by Andrea Ada Lazic will be premiered on the Large Stage of Madlenianum on 1 October, with the first revival on 2 October and the second on 8 October. In the drama WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN?, a man, a doctor and Nobel laureate, meets forty years younger himself. In mixing and uniting the two periods of time, a whole bouquet of witty, unusual and touching situations takes place, created by the extraordinary writer's talent of Eric-Emanuel Schmitt. The creators of the play are, besides Andrea Ada Lazic, the playwright Dragana Boskovic, the set designer Nikola Nikolic, the costume designer Jelena Stokuca, the composer Andrija Pavlovic, Ivica Klemenc in stage movement collaboration, Milica Janketic in stage speech collaboration and Srdjan Jovanovic in lighting design. The cast includes two gentlemen in the lead roles, Slavko Stimac and Ljubomir Bulajic, and five ladies along with them: Branka Petric, Tamara Aleksic, Lana Karaklajic, Nadja Jakovljevic and Natalija Vlahovic.

In the play, the protagonist, Alex, goes back to the past of forty years ago. It is the very same man, the young one, and this older one, time leaps are not primary. Time does not exist, it is relative, it is our personal projection. "It is important for the human soul to stay always young," says the play director, adding: "In directing, I love playing with "magical realism", because I believe what you see with your eye is not the only reality that surrounds you. In the play What If We Had Our Time Again?, I was greatly intrigued by the question which, I believe, bothers us all, and that is - to have a chance to turn back time, would we do something different in life, and would it lead us to a different outcome, or the structure of our personality has already determined the path we are taking?”

Since theatres, as well as entire society, have been living in the so-called new normality caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the play, WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN?, is the first play to be prepared at Madlenianum. Mrs. Madlena Zepter has been in a special way related to French culture. She has been awarded the Order of Art and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture for her contribution to spreading the French art. What stands out among plenty of her numerous humanistic and philanthropic engagements is the European Literary Award, established by Mrs. Madlena Zepter, in Paris in 2003. Considering her commitment to French literary creation, she has, particularly at such a “sensitive moment” for the whole planet, unsurprisingly chosen this gentle and magical comedy of Schmitt, WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN?, for her theatre audience. The play exudes hope and optimism, speaks of the multi-layered nature of life, indicates the importance of the invisible and immaterial and encourages the belief in miracles.

The project WHAT IF WE HAD OUR TIME AGAIN? has been recognized as a work of excellent potential by the expert competition commission and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

Photos from the first rehearsal >>>