Monologue No. 3, as read by Sheila Sofrenovic
Monologue prepared by Milos Sofrenovic
Text written by Marcel Proust
Performance film Lost Albertina directed by Mladomir Purisa Djordjevic
Camera and editing by Miodrag Misa Milosevic
Stage direction, choreography and performance by Milos Sofrenovic
"We do not get over pain any other way than by suffering it to the bitter end.
The only healthy thing for the body is happiness, while pain releases the forces of the spirit. As long as our life shall last, it is only when we suffer that our thoughts, forever in turmoil and tossed about by changes in direction, as in a storm, are raised to a level where we can see all of that huge space ruled by its own laws, which we would not otherwise see standing by a poorly set window because happiness offers us only a monotonous view, aimed too low.
We can emerge from suffering if by nothing else than by concluding that it exists. The mind reuses to believe that there is any situation in life that cannot be resolved. What we need to drag forth, bring out into the light of day, are our feelings, our passions, or rather, the passions and feelings of all people.
We do not get over pain any other way than by suffering it to the bitter end.
A man becomes a moral being as soon as he is unhappy. Pain is mostly our body’s need to become aware of a new state that disturbs it, a need to adapt our feelings to this state.
Disease is the doctor we listen to most of all; goodness and knowledge the doctor to whom we only make promises; and pain the doctor to whom we succumb. When someone believes for a long time that he is ill, he really becomes ill.
Life knows how to punish a person. Perhaps each night in our dreams we accept exposure to suffering that we consider to be worthless and unreal because we experience it in our dreams, for we believe dreams to be unconscious.
Often, it is only a lack o creative spirit that stops us delving deeper into suffering. Yet the most horrific reality offers us not only suffering, but the joy of a wonderful discovery because it simply presents a new clear form of something we have always wanted without knowing it.
Among the personalities of which we are composed, the most visible are not the most important.
It is better not to know anything, to think as little as possible, and not to give jealousy the slightest importance. Unfortunately, in the absence of an external life, accidents are caused by the life within us.
The things we most often mention in fun are those that are, on the contrary, painful, but we do not wish it to be seen that they give us pain, maybe hoping that the person we are talking to , seeing how we joke, will believe this none of it is true.
Man remembers truth because truth has a name and ancient roots, whereas a lie is invented on the spur of the moment and soon forgotten.
A man does not always readily accept tears he has caused to flow. We do not get over pain any other way than by suffering it to the bitter end."
Musical concept/ arrangement/ text dramaturgy by Milos Sofrenovic
Music composition/ arrangement/ sound engineering by Jan Vysocky
Text re-translated and spoken by Sheila Sofrenovic
Costume and stage design by Milos Sofrenovic
Sound by Stevan Milosevic
Produced by Nikola Lezaic
Performance film Lost Albertina is dedicated to the loving memory of ex-Yugoslav composer
KSENIJA ZECEVIC (1956 - 2006)
Duration of this performance film is 63 minutes