Theatre as a document of our time

• Main Author: Krčmar Vesna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Akademija umetnosti Univerziteta u Novom Sadu 2015-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova Akademije Umetnosti
• Subjects: documentary theatre; younger generation directors; plays: The Waiting Room; Fertile Days; Elijah's Chair; Cowardice; Zoran Đinđić; Aleksandra Zec; Fifty Blows; They Have Suffered; About the Conscience and Consciousness
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/2334-8666/2015/2334-86661503103K.pdf

Theatre performances, produced on the professional scene in Serbia in the past five or six years, seem to be a fine illustration of the theatre as a document of our time. The wars of the nineties that lead to the disintegration of Yugoslavia left traces in young directors and inspired them to create new plays. Furthermore, the massive emigration, a number of problems of the transitional period, the problems of unemployment, addiction-related treatment and rehabilitation, and an abundance of accompanying turmoil of the traumatised society led to creation of current theatre plays which, in a broad range, depict all those 'documents' of present and past time. From the wide spectrum of (younger generation) directors' personal styles, the following have been systematized: the works by Boris Liješević- The Waiting Room, Fertile Days, Elijah's Chair; the political theatre of Oliver Frljić - Cowardice, Zoran Đinđić, Aleksandra Zec; Dino Mustafić's work - Born in YU; Ana Grigorović's - Fifty Blows; Boban Skerlić's - They Have Suffered; the work of Sanja Krsmanović Tasić - About the Conscience and Consciousness, and others. Although the aforementioned plays may not completely reflect the overall number of plays created in the society weighed down by many a problem and contradiction, they surely are an indicator that a document from the life itself has managed to find its dramatic expression. What is reassuring is that the society in crisis makes a good and interesting theatre.