I, EMMA

The Opera &Theatre Madlenianum will open the 2026/2027 season on 29th September on the Large Stage with the premiere of a dramatic production based on the renowned novel MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert. Entitled I, Emma, with the subtitle “The Love Life of Emma Bovary”, the play was written by Tanja Mandic Rigonat, who will also direct this play about the famous rebel who shatters the norms of female behaviour in the mid-19th century and fights to live by her own standards of freedom.

In I, Emma, the title role will be performed by Jana Milosavljevic, alongside Katarina Gojkovic, Jovan Jovanovic, Ivan Jeftovic, Strahinja Blazic, Milos Vlalukin, Zarko Stepanov, Bojan Krivokapic, Andrija Markovic, Andreja Njezic, Nevena Mihailovic and a girl Srna Bujosevic. In this contemporary stage interpretation of a classic literary masterpiece, Tanja Mandic Rigonat is joined by an outstanding creative team comprising composer Irena Popovic Dragovic, whose evocative score will be performed live, costume designer Ivana Vasic, video designer Jelena Tvrdisic and stage movement director Andjelija Todorovic. The team also includes assistant set designer Miljan Jotic and assistant costume designer Ivana Seslija, while the director herself will create the stage space.

This play, which tackles bovarysm, a diagnosis that migrated from literature into medical textbooks, comes at a time when contemporary women need support from the theatrical stage in their search for their own identity. It seems that, day by day, it is becoming increasingly difficult for modern women to balance the needs of the communities they live in with the yearnings of their spiritual being, which hungers for love.

Starting from 29th September, with reruns on 2nd October and 10th October, and continuing throughout the season, Madlenianum audiences will be treated to a theatrical event brimming with power and passion, the story of the case of Emma Bovary, a literary figure whose author, Flaubert, faced one of the most intriguing court trials in history. The recipient of the most prestigious directing award in the country, the Bojan Stupica Award, Tanja Mandic Rigonat will offer the audience a chance to plunge into the emotional whirlwind of this enigmatic woman and, upon leaving the theatre, feel just a bit more prepared for the life that lies ahead.

Photo: Goran Srdanov