On November 8, the Macedonian National Theater hosted the premiere of the dramatic text "Marta Verina" by Dragana Lukan Nikoloski, directed by Nina Nikolić, in a co-production between "Peripetija Production" and the Macedonian National Theater in cooperation with the "Aco Shopov" Foundation.

The text "Marta Verina" is primarily the story of a woman who is both a hero and an antihero. A woman who, because of her "wrong" choices, does not belong to the society she lives in and a man who must forever live with the burden of the "mistake" he made.

The show, in fact, opens up key questions about how stigmatization is present in the society and times we live in, putting the viewer in the position of a voyeur, who shamelessly watches, judges and judges someone's actions in life. "Mistakes" that we have all made, but which we try to bury deep within ourselves, thinking that they are safe down there, protected from a world that mercilessly rejects.

Inspired by the poetry of Atso Shopov, the text anatomically dissects interpersonal relationships, giving a detailed picture of how parents' actions affect their children and how the "sacrifices" they are willing to make turn out to be wrong choices. By raising questions about whether we are cosmically destined to pay for the "sins" of our parents, or whether these are choices that are caused by the learned behavior we grew up with, the text raises a number of questions.

Dragana Lukan Nikoloski (1984) is a playwright, playwright, screenwriter and storyteller. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in 2010, where he received his master's degree in Film and Television Screenwriting in 2011. Her stories like to poke at people's intimacies and try to say what we all see and refuse to see. The language in her latest play "Marta Verina" is lively, dynamic and contemporary, and her characters are built with very precise psychological nuances.

Her collaboration with the director Nina Nikolic resulted in a clear, understandable and fluid performance that easily draws the audience into the story. Darja Rizova, Grigor Jovanovski, Blagoj Veselinov, Biljana Dragićević-Projkovska, Amernis Nokšići, Sofia Nasevska-Trifunovska and Sasha Handzić play in the play.

It is about a set of different acting energies and sensibilities. The main role with the character Marta Verina with a lot of feeling, romantic dreams and the courage to accept life's challenges is played by the actress Darya Rizova. She, without knowing it, is involved in a love triangle from which she decides to come out with a positive solution.

The actors Grigor Jovanovski and Blagoj Veselinov skillfully manage in the triangle, who during the course of the action realize that they are souls connected in some mystical way. The other roles in the play have the function of amplifying the action from different viewing angles.

The simply assembled and functionally elegant scenography is by Ilina Angelovska, the costume design that captures the modern way of life is by Ivana Karanfilovski Ugurovska, and the excellent music, which incorporates songs with songs/lyrics by Atso Shopov, is by Oliver Mitkovski and Andreja Salpe. The design of the poster is by Sara Mitova. As part of the project, a book with the dramatic text was published by "Sofia", Bogdanci.

(The text was published in "Cultural Press" number 255, in the printed edition of the newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" on 9-10.11.2024)