Selected Serbian Plays - Tapa blanda

AUTHORS presented in this anthology are Branislav Nusic ("Deceased"), Djordje Lebovic ("Hallelujah"), Aleksandar Obrenovic ("The Bird"), Aleksandar Popovic ("Hats Off!"), Ljubomir Simovic ("The Traveling Troupe Sopalovic"), Dusan Kovacevic ("Balkan Spy"), Sinisa Kovacevic ("Times Have Changed"), Nebojsa Romcevic ("Caroline Neuber"), Biljana Srbljanovic ("Barbelo, on Dogs and Children"), Milena Markovic ("A Boat for Dolls"). After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1989, the spirit and character of Serbian plays shifted to a basis on altered values and culture as a result of the wars and existential hardships. The most prominent Serbian playwrights following Lebovic, Obrenovic, and Popovic were Ljubomir Simovic and Dusan Kovacevic. Although primarily a poet, Simovic’s (1935) plays are readily described as poetic dramas. His "The Traveling Troupe Sopalovic" depicts actors travelling together and sharing their destiny. The play centers on two characters, Vasilije and Jelisaveta, whose best years are behind them. The plot and characters oscillate between reality and self-delusion, from “extreme realism to a poetic vision and we hardly notice the moment when the author of the drama has been joined by a poet”, as drama critic Jovan Hristic pointed out. All of the authors in this anthology have made important contributions to the advancement of the theatre arts in modern Serbia. Others could also have been included if not for space limitations. Each of these authors has enjoyed great recognition and popularity in Serbia itself, where their plays have been performed in numerous theatres throughout the country, side by side with the best dramatic literature from around the world. Many of them have also been recognized abroad. This international acknowledgement is a clear sign that Serbian drama has emerged on the world theatrical stage with potency and commendation. It is our sincere hope that this anthology will introduce modern Serbian plays to a wider audience of English language readers and perhaps even to a new theatre audience. -Branko Mikasinovich ***** After Tito died in 1980, the Yugoslavian government tried to pretend nothing had changed. Their motto was “After Tito – Tito”. The rules may have become less strictly enforced, but their presence still hung in the air. Holding on to the days of Tito, of course, proved more aspirational than actual. Without him, the economic imbalance between different regions continued to grow more severe and the historical grudges between ethnic groups floated back to the surface, making the eventual dissolution of the country, in retrospect, seem like a foregone conclusion. Milosevic, eventually, was a poor imitation of Tito – and, where Tito controlled political subversion with a nuanced cleverness, Milosevic lost control of it through a brazen arrogance. This allowed for a short period of more explicitly political and defiant works. Nothing of that nature, however, is included in this collection. The socio-political connections within the most contemporary works in the collection, "Barbelo" and "A Ship For Dolls," are less local in their concerns – responding with a wider attack on the human condition within the 21st century. The theatrical imagination at work within these plays provokes and inspires simultaneously. They are both invested with similar visions that acknowledge and bemoan the corruption of our times – while also seducing audiences with recognition of humanity’s insufferable and adamant refusal to succumb. Though not about to compete yet on an international scale with the likes of New York or London, Belgrade has an astonishingly prolific theatre scene, and as Harold Clurman reminded us at every opportunity, great theatre can only exist where the efforts to make theatre are legion. Belgrade is such a place and as the reader who becomes familiar with the plays in this book will avouch, Belgrade has produced some of the greatest. -Dennis Barnett