"Purple" challenges the patriarchy that violates efforts for self-identification

The color purple represents the feeling of sadness and depression, and it is precisely this color that inspired director Selma Spahic to create this story, where people have to face conservatism, prejudice or even fascism. The similarity is not intentional, but many can recognize themselves in the characters of the play "Purple"

In traditional family environments, there is a lot of love and care, but when the boundaries of freedom are questioned, everything becomes taboo. With this idea, the theater team of “Kamerni 55” traveled from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Pristina, to bring the play “Purple” as part of the International Theater Festival in Pristina. The play, directed by Selma Spahić, consists of a cast of six actors, who on Friday evening appeared in front of a small audience at the “Faruk Begolli” theater of the “AAB” college, to perform the play in Bosnian, which in the original language is called “Ljubičasto”.

Under the dramaturgy of Emina Omerović, the play "Purple" had its premiere on December 11, 2021 at "Kamerni 55" in Sarajevo, and the uniqueness of this project is that there was no model on which to base it, but in fact the entire ensemble created the drama together, incorporating ideas from the actors' real family relationships, so for each actor the creation process was separate and different from the others.

Tatjana Šojić, who plays the role of the head of the family, is apparently not the conservative model of a mother, because she explores her freedom as a being. Along with her, Maja Izetbegović, Davor Golubović, Anja Kraljević, Sabit Sejdinović and Boris Ler also star on the stage.

The play depicts a diverse bourgeois family, within which everyone knows their role and does what is best for their loved ones, is extremely honest with each other, consults and helps each other – they do everything, just so that everyone is happy. Their happiness is shattered when the color purple enters and with it the disturbing challenge of freedom. What is the limit of freedom that we are willing to cross as individuals? What limits has patriarchal society crossed long ago? Is someone else’s happiness accepted only if it meets our criteria? Are we on the path to an ordered society and a tribal community? The result is a story about a woman they think they know, about the fine line between her freedom and the “fascism” of her family.

When the family members catch their mother and a foreign student who has come to the city to study English in the act, they have no patience to listen to the mother's excuses, they scold her endlessly. They catch the student and take him to a corner to kill him. The sound of shovels is heard as he is beaten to death - but surprisingly the student returns to the head of the family. This happens two or three more times until he never returns. This disappearance and this return have been like a metaphor for the children's attempt to "kill" the young man who lives inside their mother's heart.

The color purple represents the feeling of sadness and depression, and it is precisely this color that inspired director Selma Spahić to create this story, where people have to confront conservatism, prejudice or even fascism. The similarity is not intentional, but many can recognize themselves in the characters of the play “Purple”.

The director herself was not present when the performance was given in Pristina, but the acting director of the "Kamerni 55" theater, Vedran Fajkovic, spoke about the performance.

"The play is about a traditional Bosnian family, a normal family, which has no idea what the head of the household does. In essence, the story tries to show how we don't understand who our parents are, who we naturally see as functions; she is the mother, she has to take care of her children. We don't know who she really is. We don't appreciate these people, we don't understand that before they had children, they had their careers and dreams, their ideas about life, and then when the children come into the world and the family is created, they become parents, they become the ones who teach us, the ones who take care of us, and the whole story of the play is how children are never able to detach themselves from the idea that the mother or the father - it doesn't matter which one - are not just functions, they are living beings, they have their own dreams, they live their own lives and it is quite difficult to make this distinction," the acting director of the Bosnian theater, Vedran, told KOĞAN. Fajkovic.

Regarding the selection of the color purple, he indicated that a figurative meaning was used to express a state of mind and a harmful feeling.

"The choice of the color purple contains many symbols, but the most common one is that this color is the color of jealousy, so we chose it for this show," he added.

Actor Boris Ler, who plays one of the family's two sons in the drama, shared his impressions of the audience's reaction. He added that he has been to Pristina twice before to perform Serbian and Bosnian plays.

"I was in Pristina with a performance from Mostar and another time with one from Belgrade, we had come to play those plays and now for the play 'Purple' it is a great pleasure to be here again, because I think that the Kosovar audience is really emotional, they follow the performances with their whole body and mind, so if you see the play, you notice the connection that is created between us actors and the audience, at least I felt it, that they were watching without moving, always with their breathing in sync with us and this is a great pleasure. I also love the city very much!", Bosnian actor Boris Ler spoke to KOĞAN.

With all this commotion inside the hall, the play “Purple” is a sensitive and shocking blow to the patriarchal structures that continue to limit the freedom of the individual, especially within the traditional family. It reflects on a common, but often unspoken reality: parents are not just functional roles, but are beings with desires, dreams and pain. It is precisely this reality that explodes on stage through a color that represents more than sadness – purple becomes a symbol of revolt, jealousy and the struggle for self-identification.

Evoking deep emotions in the way the drama portrays family love stifled by collective expectations, it shows how the most sincere feelings can turn into judgment, violence, and oppression in the name of “rule.” “Purple” does not provide easy answers, but confronts fundamental questions about freedom, identity, and the ability to see oneself beyond the role one plays in life.