Anatomy of the Soul

Drama actor Vojin Ćetković has received the prestigious Miloš Žutić Award, from a field of nine candidates, for best acting in the June 2007 - June 2008 period.

By Milorad St. Ilić
Photo by JDP/BDP

Vojin Ćetković was born in Kruševac on August 22, 1971, and graduated from the Belgrade University Faculty of Dramatic Arts under the class of Professor Vlada Jeftović. Theatre, movie and TV audiences have seen him in many roles in which he reached a peak of artistic creation, and so it was not surprising that a jury consisting of president Cisana Murisidze (director), Pavle Minčić and Pavle Pekić (actors), Jovan Ćirilov (theatre expert) and Milica Kralj (director) awarded him the prize with a majority of votes.

Having played some 30 major roles in theatre, and as many in film and on TV, your work was crowned with the Miloš Žutić Award, presented by the Serbian Association of Dramatic Artists, for playing Don Krsto (Yugoslav Drama Theatre - JDP) directed by Vida Ognjenović. What meaning does this recognition – awarded by your colleagues – carry for you and what does the award's name – Miloš Žutić – signify for you?

– It means a great deal to me to have acted in a production in which Vida Ognjenović entrusted me with the leading role. When she was writing the play, as she told me she had had me in mind and was prepared to wait a year, if she had to, until I was free from other engagements, because she said she wanted me to play the role because I embody this 'anatomy of the soul on stage'. Frankly, the award came as a surprise because I was not aware that I had been nominated, nor was I aware that the jury had watched one of the last performances of the season. Any award, and in particular one of the most prestigious, is proof of an actor's maturity, that an actor has found his own place in the world, and that an actor has succeeded in advancing the roles he plays through his acting skills. As for Miloš Žutić, I received a wonderful compliment while at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. I was shortlisted and came through successfully. A girl approached me at that time and said: 'Hello, I am Katarina Žutić. I hope to become your colleague next year. I very much liked what you did for your entrance exam, and I must tell you that on stage you resemble my late father. Not physically, but you possess the sort of warmth my father had.' This was one of the greatest compliments I have ever received because I had watched Miloš Žutić, mostly in theatre, and less often on film and TV. He was a bard in the truest sense of the word, and one of few actors about whom I have never heard anything negative. Young actors often used to imitate him for his superb, deep velvety voice. He was a man well worth admiring.

Who is Don Krsto played by Vojin Ćetković, and does this character's personality resonate with contemporary relevance?

– I find that all the plays on the repertoire of my theatre house – the Yugoslav Drama Theatre – are topical. Don Krsto is very much such a character. At the outset, I had a dilemma about how to go about building my role because little is known about his life. This particular moment is an advantage for the playwright and a handicap for the actor, because it is constraining when you lack sufficient information about the man you are supposed to play on stage. During the process of elaborating the character, I came to understand that he was a very ambitious man. He paid for a cemetery tomb in a plush Venice city quarter, where he wanted to be laid to rest, and he built his own tombstone among the then greats of the cultural and public scene. This is rather telling about the man's mental makeup. However, in analysing his life, I realised that such a discovery would lead me in the wrong direction, so I stuck to Vida's text and we performed it like a melodrama. The story involves a man experiencing a terrifying internal struggle. He was the dean of a church and educator with a doctoral degree in law. He moved from Padova to Venice, where he wrote love poetry and sonnets. He was a gifted man with an enviable level of education, and held a high clerical position within the Catholic Church. He was a 'martyr' who could not marry the love of his life because had had chosen a path of spirituality, which included a vow of celibacy. Highly emotional and talented, he found Budva much too constraining and left for Italy. As a person, he was always half way to somewhere. Such paradoxes, the distance between his profession and ideas, between the calling of a priest and erotic poetry, between theatre and science, all of that is very exciting to an actor designated to play such a character. The motto of the play and of the main character is found in a sentence uttered by Don Krsto: "I am always between two shores, my home is on neither!"

– Vida Ognjenović explained that he had a twin brother, and this separation from his brother was hard on Don Krsto. After 15 years Krsto saw his brother who told him that he had married Krsto's first and only love. This shattered him. His brother found him in Venice as a highly distinguished, respected and wealthy man living in luxury, but one with infinite sorrow and melancholy for things he had so much wanted but had not tasted. The vernacular in which Vida wrote the piece is brilliant. Each line is music in the Paštrović dialect. It's wonderful.

You have acted in every genre very successfully. We may observe that melodrama is retuning to our theatre. Why do you think that is?

– Reporters have often asked me what I would prefer to act, and I would invariably answer – melodrama. At the moment, I am acting in two classical melodramas in theatre, and the title role in the Ranjeni Orao (The Wounded Eagle) TV series – which is a genuine middle-class melodrama. I feel quite free in this genre. Relations between men and women interest me, and when I read or act in a melodrama, I get the impression that I have a full grasp of the text. I do not feel shy before the camera or my female colleagues. One must have a good partner to exchange energies in acting; when this happens, it always comes off well. In my view, everything comes and goes but melodrama has this sort of universality because the time to raise certain fundamental issues, discuss emotions or simply to love is always now.

How do you go about artistically developing the characters you play? Do you 'become them' on stage, or is the person called Vojin Ćetković, the artist, only a mediator between the character and audience?

– The answer is in the question. I absolutely must adjust myself to the character I play and also adjust the character to myself. If these two currents fail to coincide at a given moment, then you cannot aspire towards authenticity on stage, and the aim is for what is said on stage to ring true. What matters is that these two elements meet at one point.

How do you see yourself as an artist in the time and space in which you live and, in general, how do you find the society we now live in as compared to the one in which we used to live?

– I am not satisfied when I look at the society in which I live today. During difficult times, theatre was somehow more alive, as was film. We had an ideal that we struggled to achieve; there was an ideological rebellion, a middleclass opposition to injustice and repression. This is why we rallied together, why we lived and worked. Once we reached that goal, when we finally got this society, we suddenly ran out of ideas. I read, I travel, I look around, I look at Serbia, I look at the world, at Europe – and everything is 'cracking'. This major crisis was inevitable because the situation was intolerable. There is not a single stable ideology to be found anywhere – merely faint twitches. You live purely to survive. Not just here; but everywhere. Money takes absolute precedence; it is the criterion and governing principle of life and existence. Certainly, such a way of life must bring about chaos and disintegration. That is why I sometimes feel hollow.

Has the acting profession gained in significance and apart from the educational and ennobling aspects, has it expanded its power to instigate changes beyond the stage?

– I have noticed that before elections or large humanitarian drives, many political parties invite actors to take part in events and state their views, so one gets the impression that we wield considerable influence as public figures. This is also my view. We can impact reality and we can exert influence on people. Naturally, this is sometimes abused. However, I increasingly feel responsible for what I act. I have realised just how strong an influence television or theatre is on young people, on their development and the life path on which they will embark. I remember, while still in high school, watching two productions directed by Dejan Mijač. I decided to turn to acting then and there, after viewing the productions. I was beside myself with enthusiasm after these performances because they got me straight in the heart. This feeling of exhilaration remained with me for a number of days as I replayed in my mind what I had seen on stage. The same thing happened with several movies that cut deep into my memory. Yes, we are absolutely in a position to create the nation's tastes, primarily those of young people. But, unfortunately, many TV stations are interested only in ratings and numbers, and are merely playing up to viewers. They fail to understand what great damage they inflict by creating mental chaos. They fail to appreciate what great responsibility they bear before the coming generations and what a great burden they place on their backs in the process. As a result, anti-heroes become heroes, positive role models are lost and the system of values is going to the dogs. They are making silicone-breast Barbie dolls from girls, because they all appear to be coming from the same mould. Some TV stations insist on this for commercial reasons because they can generate immense profits by instilling bad taste and trash as they poison young people. This is why, only in certain cases, we actors, bear some positive influence. We, too, are becoming part of the brain-washing machine. Theatre, in this sense, is still of a higher quality due to its stricter moral and aesthetic values. It also has the power – as shown in our more recent past – to unmistakably anticipate events. Some theatrical productions have anticipated wars, demonstrations, tanks in the streets. All of these things occurred on stage before they really happened. We have pointed out many things on time. Remember the performance of the play Sveti Sava by Siniša Kovačević, with Žarko Laušević playing the title role at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, which was discontinued during the peak of nationalist feelings. How strong a reaction this move invited! And before that, also at the JDP, the performance of Kad Su Cvetale Tikve (When Pumpkins Blossomed), created after a text by Dragoslav Mihailović, was banned. It was removed from the repertoire for revealing the truth about the plight of prisoners on Goli Otok Island. Many new productions met with a high response and had a motivating effect. From here, from theatre, various protests started while I was still a student and young actor.

Which values would you single out that must be preserved at any cost, towards which we must strive, and what would you, as an actor whose creations can arouse human emotions, send out as a message, especially to young people?

– Sound mental and physical health are the greatest values. One must strive to preserve them fanatically, at any cost. Previously, when everything was allegedly OK, when we led a 'fine' life, kept 'fine' company, when everyone could travel abroad without any problems, actors were somehow perceived as being in the extreme. These weird people closed themselves in theatres and worked. Then, as times became irregular and as irregular things were happening outside the theatre, we actors became extremely normal precisely because we had preserved ourselves from outside influences. Believe me, there are now many more healthy people in the theatre than there are in the streets. I am speaking about mental health. What then should one strive to retain? One must retain memories from late childhood, from the time when one made the transition from being a young man or young woman, into an adult person. This period is the repository of the purest thoughts and emotions. We must keep that period in our hearts and souls to be able to return to it later in life and discern things accordingly. One must continually tread the path of the highest virtue. That would be my message to young people. Cherish and cultivate that feeling when you first fell in love. That's the place you want to be always.

Impressive TV and Movie Career   Vojin Ćetković has acted in film and television productions since 1993. Some of the productions in which he participated include: Paradise, Sympathy and Antipathy, The Tango is a Sad Thought to Be Danced, File 128), Raskršće Crossroads, The Hornet, The Family Treasure, The Knife, And Now Goodbye, Boomerang, The Third Channel from the Sun, The Family Treasure 2, The Third Reich Heist, Villa Maria, Love Stars, Ivko's Slava, The Trap, Huddersfield, A Theatre in One's Own Home, Wounded Eagle, My Cousin from the Country 2, Kingdom of Serbia, Obituary for Escobar, The Storks Will Return, The Linden Street.

Theatre:   Merchants - JDP, Troilus and Cressida - JDP, In the Hold - JDP, Servant-Girls, The Devil's Yard – Kruševac Theatre, The Misanthrope - JDP, The Audience - Atelje 212 theatre, Roberto Cuko (Atelje 212), The Golden Fleece – Belgrade Drama Theatre, BDP, Taming the Shrew – Belgrade National Theatre, The Rostrum - JDP, Huddersfield - JDP, Pillowman - BDP, La Mandragola – Belgrade National Theatre, The Doll Ship - JDP, The Lower Depths - JDP, That's the Way It Had to Be - JDP.   Vojin Ćetković recently finished shooting a film titled Romance in the Dark directed by Danish director Rie Rasmussen and produced by the celebrated Luc Besson, and in the first film directed and written by Djordje Balašević titled Kao Rani Mraz.