Serbia's Dah Theatre concluded its visit to Brown Wednesday night with "The Story of Tea," an experimental drama based on Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters."
Dah Theatre is a company dedicated to "profound experimental work," according to its website. Founded in 1991 in response to the burgeoning war in Yugoslavia, Dah asks the question, "What is the role of the theatre?"
For a company committed to the experimental, using Chekhov's naturalistic piece as a starting point might seem like a strange choice.
"I'm totally not interested in doing classical plays," said Aleksandra Jelic, who plays one of the three sisters in the production. "We're doing a classical play, but in our way."
Chekhov's play explores the theme of missed opportunity as the Prozorov family spends years debating whether or not to return to their beloved Moscow — a city of chance and progress. In the end, they never leave and must live with the sad truth that life may only consist of empty dreams.
This sense of missed opportunity was the driving theme behind Dah's "Three Sisters" redux, which took place in the Pell Chafee Performance Center.
"Our country feels like that, like we never caught that train," Jelic said.
"The Story of Tea" begins on a happy note with the family buzzing about their home, serving themselves — and the audience — freshly brewed, delicious tea.
"Tea is the answer to everything," says one of the sisters, played by Sanja Krsmanovic-Tasic. Throughout the play, the sisters turn to a hot cup of tea whenever things become too much for them to bear, which is often. The past is not a forgiving mistress — it haunts the sisters throughout the play, chasing them and sneaking up on them just when they begin to hope again.
In rare moment of carefree joy, the sisters "ice skate" onstage. But, in the midst of the frivolity, one sister begins to read a newspaper that contains the story of how, in 1993, Serbian police under Milosevic kidnapped and murdered at least 19 individuals from a train simply because they had Muslim-sounding names.
The effect this news clipping has on the sisters is instantaneous. Grief-stricken, their moment of calm is over. Tea cups clatter to the floor, water is spilled and cries are heard. Tea is not the answer to everything, then, but merely a balm for wounds too big to ever heal.
The play calls into question the responsibility of individuals to speak up in the face of such atrocities. A whole train full of people watched this happen "in deadly silence."
It also questions the role of the soldier, something many men in Serbia are still trying to come to terms with today, Jelic said. As Jugoslav Hadzic, who played the sisters' brother, says in the play, "All I did was follow the orders of my superiors." How are they supposed to live with this knowledge? And how are people supposed to live knowing that the murderers were brothers, friends or lovers?
Though the play was performed in Serbian and English, as well as some lines of French, Greek, Russian and various African languages, the meaning of the play is not lost. There are harsh truths in this world that must be faced.
The theme of missing chances was what ultimately drew the cast to the work, Jelic said.
"Missing opportunities led to missing people in the train which led to the horrors of Srebrenica," Jelic said. "This led us to missing civilization, to missing languages, to missing truths."
Hadzic said that initially he wanted nothing to do with the Chekhov-inspired production because, "subconsciously we saw a clear connection to our country at the time we were writing the piece," he said.
Dah's combination of chilling facts, haunting music and mesmerizing performances force audience members to think about their role in the greater scheme of things, bringing them into the production as well.
Despite these harsh realities, the play ends hopefully, with the actresses placing faux-candles into audience members' tea cups. As darkness descends on the theater, the only lights are those shining among the audience. Perhaps the answer lies with tea, after all. If individuals take time to think and come to terms with the world around them, perhaps things could move forward.
"A time will come when everyone will know the reason for all this suffering," say the sisters. "Then we will be left alone to begin our lives anew. If only we knew."
