If psychodrama is defined as a science that explores the ‘truth’ by dramatic methods, dealing with interpersonal relations and one’s private world, then director Zoran Tairović’s Sandokan Nikolić – The bare Truth is an multifaceted example of this drama.

Tairović’s directorial philosophy is rooted in the phenomena of spontaneity and creativity. The spontaneity of Roma amateur Sandokan Nikolić and his talent for applying the personal experiences and ideas that each person carries and that distinguish each individual from others gives the director the possibility of flatteringly creative expression.

The liberation of spontaneity in a person leads to the creation of a free mind possessing characteristics such as curiosity, expressiveness, criticality, responsibility, lust, imaginativeness, intuition, freedom in social contact and social experimentation. These elements of spontaneity are our natural characteristics, the legacy that needs to be reintegrated to take advantage of the enormous psychic energy that can serve as a source for coping with difficulties in a world that is constantly changing – and Sandokan Nikolić has difficulties which need overcoming. The hero of this psycho-monodrama stands before the audience with a hard life story. Indeed, he really wants to commit suicide, as he tells the director during the Prologue of the play. In order to save him from certain death, the director decides to ‘squeeze him’ through a psychodrama and try to help him.

The performance is a magical improvisation by an amateur of Roma origin who wants to die because of misfortune in love: his woman has left him and he no longer finds meaning in life. Sandokan has no life without Soka, the woman who wants to leave him. In the solo performance, the main actor accidentally forgets which pocket his written text is in. This forces him into an impassioned improvisation while his props fall off the table …

The director believes in human potential, in spontaneity and creativity through theatre. This ultimately leads to a brilliant play that talks about love and suffering, about overcoming the inner and outer dilemmas we call life.