Tracing The Intricate in Scene Design: The Temptation to be Happy [Recognition STRAND 2023]

Abstract

Lorenzo Marone’s best-selling novel La tentazione di essere felici (The Temptation to be Happy), is renowned for its profound exploration of human relationships, emotions, and the significance of reflecting on all those seemingly small moments in life. The scene design concept for its staging at the National Theatre in Belgrade relies precisely on the intricacies of these relationships. Simultaneously, within a confined space, the audience is presented with all the actors and staging elements crucial for the play. Three main rotating walls, along with a few other essential pieces of furniture, move and transform the playing space to depict all the main settings for contemplating ordinary life, thereby showcasing the intertwined and complex relationships between the play's characters. The complexity of the relationships between the characters is translated into spatial elements subtly repeated and woven throughout the personal spaces of the various main characters. These include Cesare's apartment, Catherine's office, and Dante's apartment, as well as several non-places such as the gallery, street, and hospital. These recurring motifs serve as binding threads, symbolizing the interweaving of life's minutiae—the little things that give life meaning. The transformation of space from one setting to another evokes a poetic dance, highlighting the emergence of overarching qualities within the intricate web of relationships among characters, spaces, and spatial motifs. Director: Andrej Nosov, Playwright: Đorđe Kosić, Costume Designer: Selena Orb, Scenographer: Dejan Todorović, Composer: Draško Adžić, Stage Movement: Marija Milenković, Executive Producer: Marija Kovačević, Assistant Director: Aleksandra Lozanović, Inspector: Sanja Ugrinić Mimica, Prompter: Gordana Perovski Cast: Mladen Andrejević, Nela Mihailović, Vanja Ejdus, Dušan Matejić, Nina Nešković, Rade Ćosić