THEATER CRITICISM: Masters of the theater game

THEATER management in Serbia, due to lack of funds, or for other reasons, rarely organize the arrival of critics from Belgrade to their premieres.

That is why they rarely appear in the selection for the best theatrical productions in a calendar year. The choice remains, for the most part, from the premiers of the capital’s theaters. A good example in 2024, among the few, was the Theater “Sterija” from Vršac, so this critic had the opportunity to see the excellent studio “Koštana”. Also, it is valuable that co-productions with theaters outside the city and outside Serbia are becoming more frequent, so we were able to see the excellent play “The Silencing of Socrates” in Belgrade.

1. Heinrich von Kleist:

“Michael Kolhas”,
directed by Boris Liješević. JDP

The excellent repertoire choice of the Yugoslav Drama Theater made it possible for the audience, who loved “The Broken Jug” of the same writer, in the interpretation of the director Boris Liješević and the dramatization of Fedor Šili, to see a real theatrical event, excellently acted (Vojin Ćetković, Milena Vasić, Zoran Cvijanović, Nikola Rakočević , Miloš Samolov, Vojislav Brajović…), significantly enriched with the music of King Čačak, with the sobering refrain “Save us of us…”

Koolhaas’s guilt is his heroism, so this novel can also be read as the eternal impotence of an individual in a collision with the “deep state”.

2. Hauard Brenton:

“The Silencing of Socrates”,
director Nebojsa Bradić.
Bitef Theater and
Center for Culture Tivat

One of the most precise theater researchers in the search for truth, Howard Brenton, dedicated the drama “Silencing Socrates” to the curse of Socrates, never more relevant truthfulness and justice, for denying the old deities and “corrupting the youth”!

Nebojša Bradić directs the ancient agon as a contemporary event, in which the Demon replaces the supervision of the deity, clearly indicating the obligation for everyone who “knows that he knows nothing” to discuss truth and justice with the demon inside him. The exact division (Bojan Dimitrijević, Jugoslav Krajnov, Jelena Stupljanin, Sanja Ristic Krajnov) powerfully supports Socrates’ deadly thesis about the futility of “unexplored” life.

3. Dušan Kovačević:

“Saint George
slays the dragon”,
director Milan Nešković. JDP

After forty years, the new viewing of the only dramatic text by the comedic writer Dušan Kovačević, directed by Milan Nešković and adapted by Jelena Mijović, on the stage of the Yugoslav Drama Theater, brought back to the viewers a deep, true emotion, which is caused by an artistic view of tragic reality in a melodramatic-historical event, on the eve of the Battle on Cer. The two antagonists, Milan Marić and Nikola Rakočević, as well as Jovana Belović, lead an exceptional acting division, which evokes the eternal human passion for love and defense of the homeland, illuminated by the heavenly Saint George with a golden spear.

4. Bora Stanković:

“Koštana, dream/eros/sin”, director
Vladimir Lazic. National Theatre
“Sterija”, Vršac

Director Vladimir Lazić interprets the fate of Koštana’s tragic fate on stage in the constant battle between eros and thanatos, in which death always has the upper hand. With musical arrangements by Ninoslav Ademović and superior artistic interpretation of the most famous heroes of our theater tradition, Koštana (Jovana Božić), Salčet (Tamara Tamči Toskić), Mitko (Ivan Đorđević), Hadži Toma (Jonel kuđija, Stojana (Miloš Đurović)…), the most famous Bora Stanković’s work is no longer a folklore melodrama, but becomes a significant activism for human rights, against patriarchal slavery and social marginalization, in support of the eternal longing for beauty and freedom.

Photo Zvezdara theater

5. Dušan Kovačević:

“The widow of a living man”,
Directed by the author.
Zvezdara theater

In the evident dominant comedic transversal of Serbian dramaturgy, Dušan Kovačević is a classic, long recognized as a master of theatrical dialogue, who reconstructs real life in a stage, artistic form. In the comedy “The Widow of a Living Man” he mercilessly exposes (with) laughter the precisely observed mental “mistakes” of conspiracy theorists, as well as elusive family-love relationships, which vary from minor infidelities to serious violence… Jelena Đokić, Nela Mihailović, Miodrag Krstović, Anđelika Simić, Sunčica Milanović and Dušan Tomić repeat the history of theater stars in Kovačević’s comedies.