The programme of the 70th Sterijino pozorje will feature work by Boris Liješević and Zlatko Paković.
“Despite deep social crises, dramatic upheavals that have thoroughly shook our social stage, or maybe because of them, the offer of performances for this festival was, on the whole, more artistically challenging, compared to the previous year”, the selector of Sterijino pozorje, theatre critic and scholar Ana Tasić notes at the beginning of her statement announcing the selection for this year’s festival that traditionally takes place from 26 May to 3 June in Novi Sad.
The 70th edition of the festival of national drama will showcase 9 performances in the Competition program – which is based on Serbian text (classical, contemporary and new plays, as well as dramatizations of books and authorial projects) – and 3 performances in the special selection Circles which presents theatre works based on the neighbouring countries’ national texts.
However, the distinction between the Serbian national theatre and the regional theatrical scenes hasn’t been clear-cut in recent years, as Serbian texts are often staged in ex-Yugoslav countries (the propositions of Sterijino pozorje state that all performances based on Serbian text can compete for the main program, no matter if they are domestic or international productions). Thus, four shows of the Competition program come from ex-Yugoslav countries: Football Boot Tongue by Filip Grujić and Ivan Ergić (director: Borut Šeparović; Zagreb Youth Theatre), the authorial project of Boris Liješević Naličje (Montenegrin National Theatre), Belgrade Trio by Goran Matković (director: Matjaž Berger; Anton Podbevšek Theatre in Novo Mesto, Slovenia) and A Member of the Parliament by Branislav Nušić (director: Egon Savin; Macedonian National Theatre).
St George Slays the Dragon at Yugoslav Drama Theatre
The Competition program will also see five performances produced by theatres in Serbia: Izuzeti (Exempt) by Djordje Petrović (director: Mia Knežević, Sombor National Theatre), To Serbian Youth, Dimitrije Tucović (written and directed by Zlatko Paković, PULS Theatre in Lazarevac), Redemption, based on the novel by Branimir Šćepanović (director: Veljko Mićunović, Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad), No One is Forgotten and We Remember Nothing, based on the novel by Mirjana Drljević (director: Bojana Lazić, Atelje 212) and St. George Slays the Dragon by Dušan Kovačević (director: Milan Nešković, Yugoslav Drama Theatre).
Selector Ana Tasić notes that these nine performances contain “critical meanings, with depictions of the unshakable and fierce struggles of actors for social justice, for the eradication of corruption, deep systemic rot, for the cleansing of criminogenic structures from society”. Tasić notes that theatre was “one step ahead” and that it anticipated reality, since most of these performances premiered before 1 November 2024 when part of the train station in Novi Sad collapsed, subsequently killing 16 people and sparkling the largest student protests and anti-corruption, anti-authoritarian uprising in Serbian contemporary history. Thus, the 70th Sterijino pozorje will be held under the slogan “Making History/ Changing the Future”.
The special selection Circles will feature three performances from the region: The Father, The Daughter and The Holy Ghost by the Croatian playwright Mate Matišić (director: Januš Kica, Satirical Theatre “Kerempuh” in Zagreb), Wooden Birds by Lidija Deduš (director: Ivan Plazibat; Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin) and Battle of Požiralnik, based on Prežihov Voranc’s novella (director: Jerner Lorenci, Prešeren Theatre in Kranj, Slovenia). Tasić writes that these performances question the relationship between nature and civilization and that they search for “the possibilities of preserving the core of life in the brutal challenges of society, in the ubiquity of human actions motivated by vanity, envy, greed”.
Borisav Matić is a critic and dramaturg from Serbia. He is the Regional Managing Editor at The Theatre Times. He regularly writes about theatre for a range of publications and media.
He’s a member of the feminist collective Rebel Readers with whom he co-edits Bookvica, their platform for literary criticism, and produces literary shows and podcasts. He occasionally works as a dramaturg or a scriptwriter for theatre, TV, radio and other media. He's the administrator of IDEA - the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association.
