T H E a T R E a R T S R E V I

28 THEATRE ARTS REVIEW Scena, ISSN 0351-3963 Theatre Arts Review No. 28 NOVI SAD, 2015 January–December CONTENTS Zoran Đerić PUPPET THEATRE IN SERBIA............... > 5 Translated > Vera Krmpot Simon Grabovac POETIC ASPECTS OF ALTERNATIVE THEATRE EXPRESSION IN SERBIA ......... > 10 Translated > Vera Krmpot Marina Milivojević Mađarev WHAT WAS PUBLISHED AND WHAT PLAYED IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 2003 TO 2015..................... > 14 Translated > Vera Krmpot Goran Ibrajter CARDANUS .............................> 27 Translated > Marija Harmat Olga Dimitrijević IT’S SO GOOD SEEING YOU AGAIN..........> 59 Translated > Ksenija Latinović Jelena Popović GLOOMY MONDAY . .> 89 Three act tragedy Translated > Dubravka Vlahović THEATRE ARTS REVIEW Zoran Đerić istory of puppetry in Serbia has not been written yet. There are several reasons for this. Some believe H that puppetry in our country does not have a long tradition (Stanković 1966: 19), at least not the kind en- PUPPET joyed by the peoples of the Far East, as well as the peoples of Europe (mainly Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Eng- lishmen, Germans, Russians, Czechs and Poles). Others THEATRE IN believe that playing with puppets and love for puppets have always been present: “It is safe to say that the first forms of puppetry had emerged several thousand years B.C., and that puppetry as a separate form of stage theat- SERBIA er art was developed and confirmed only in the twentieth century” (Bjelošević 2007: 57). Some see the start of Translated > Vera Krmpot puppetry in our folk tradition and in folk (public) theater (Kostić 1989; Marjanović 2005), others find it in Vertep (Lazić 2013), and others yet see it in the emergence of traveling entertainers, from the beginning of the eighteenth century (Radonjić 1999: 122–124; Vučenović 2013: 75–82). Both adults and children were friends with puppets, at fairs, watching at first simple circus acts with puppetry skills, and then indipendent performances by traveling puppeteers. From playing with shadows, through puppets, guignols and yava puppets, all the way to me- chanical and other puppets that were made and creat- ed in every possible way – each and every period had its own puppet fun. We often overlook the fact that puppetry can be rec- ognized in pagan rituals, especially in numerous fertility rituals where ritual masks and puppets were often used. This is the evidence that puppetry follows man from the very beginning, and it remains with him and in this ritual form until the emergence of Christianity, but also later, in some form, especially in the folk traditions tolerated by the church, regardless of their pagan origins. Certain elements of puppetry are found in school plays too, as well as in Christmas church performances – Vertep or the manger. With the arrival of the Turks in the Balkans, as evidenced by historical facts, we also received the popular oriental shadow theater, also known as “Karađoz”. > 6 Later on, traveling puppeteers from Europe with their and starry masks, wedding masks, masks on baptism, and street and fairground puppet theater and puppet heroes a host of other social masquerade games including mill- reach us, too. Over time, among our people there are al- er, aga, fairies, wild weddings, etc. “(Pavić 1970: 234). so some attracted by puppetry; they begin to make pup- Apart from the “street theatre”, as Milorad Pavić pets and to animate them in rural fairs, but also in city named it, and apart from the previously mentioned pop- squares and streets. Wooden heroes begin to take on lo- ular, folk and lay theater, in the baroque period among cal characteristics and names in order to attract larger the Serbs there is also school theater and Vertep, first audiences addressed by them. as church-based, and then as secular puppet theater. The theater chronicles note that in the middle of Vertep appears at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- the 14th century in our country arrived a group of enter- tury in Sremski Karlovci, when it became extremely tainers including musicians, dancers, actors and proba- popular among Karlovci teachers and students, and the bly even puppeteers (Klaić 1989: 23). Some researchers “custom of wearing Vertep continues and lasts over the (Kićović 1951; Stojković 1979) found certain evidence of entire nineteenth century, and gets spread throughout theater activities among Serbs as early as the 10th centu- Vojvodina and Serbia” (Pavić 1970: 278). In their writ- ry. Petar Marjanović begins his Short History of Serbian ings, Vertep is entertained by other historians of Serbi- Theater with the thirteenth century (Marjanović 2005). an theater too (Miraš Kićović, Mihovil Tomandl, Borivoje Unlike European medieval theater which was under the S. Stojković), but they still fail to define it as a separate, influence of the church, “Serbian theater performanc- puppet form of theater. Radoslav Lazić (Lazić 2013) be- es are reminiscent of secular actors’ improvisations in longs to those researchers who Vertep recognize as the the open, in public places, outside the framework of the “biblical puppet theater”. church, and (exactly because of that!) outside of church As already mentioned, in the Serbian countries that influence” (Stojković 1979: 15). It was quite similar to were ruled by the Ottoman Empire from the fifteenth commedia dell’arte, yet with hints of religious and mimic to the nineteenth century there was the shadow theater inscenations from neighboring Byzantium (Kotas 2002). “Karađoz” present (Antonijević 1984). It is well-known that in Europe these games with masks At the beginning of the twentieth century in Europe, were significantly influenced by the puppet street com- and therefore in our country as well, there is a renewal edy and their heroes, such as Punch, Guignol, Kasper of interest in puppet art. Organised puppet activities are (Yorick 1990: 16). In Bosnia and Dubrovnik of that time linked to the groups of enthusiasts who in 1920 launched there were many more such theatrical events, while in the first puppet theaters – painter Milan Klemenčić in medieval Serbia neither the church nor the nobility had Ljubljana – Slovenian Puppet Theater, and painter Ljubo much benevolence for acting, as opposed to people who Babić – Zagreb Puppet Theater. A year or two after that, always had plenty of theatrical elements in their plays. in Novi Sad, professor Vasa Stajić became interested in In most of these games they used masks, which had both puppetry, and in 1923 in Belgrade Manege – the Mar- archetypal and symbolic dimensions: ionette Theatre, which was founded by journalist Žika “Masquerade performances were certainly echoes of Kovačević, began to play their shows. lazarice, dodole1) and others like džamalari, vucari, čarojice, In 1930 the Yugoslav Puppetry Association was koledari, as well as Vertep and (poklade)2) masks – faršan founded. Mostly the members were the Slovenian puppet theaters, then Croatian, but others too, among them 1) Various folk dances and customs (translator’c comment). the Puppet Theatre from Sremska Mitrovica, from Novi 2) Winter carnival of fasting (translator’s comment). Sad, Kragujevac, Veliki Bečkerek, Titel, Zemun, Belgrade. 7 > For Yugoslav puppetry the most important event at context, Serbian national being becomes recognizable that time was the Ljubljana Congress of UNIMA (Union and commensurable, always dramatic (most often trag- internationale des marionettes – International Puppet- ic), and sometimes comic (burlesque), and from Jovan ry Association, which was founded in 1929 in Prague) Sterija Popović onwards our national theater becomes held in 1933. Since then, the puppetry in our country an original theater. has been approached in a more organized manner, but Another reason is the fact that the history of theater despite growing professionalism in dealing with the pup- (as the oldest theatrology discipline) became independent pet art, it was still dominated by amateurism and troupes only in the early twentieth century. The first histories of based on those grounds. the Serbian theater were written then. At the beginning The Second World War interrupted the develop- of the 21st century more and more studies on the history ment of puppet art in our country, although, according of puppet theater are being written in our country (there to some sources, there was at times some partisan pup- are several doctoral dissertations on the subject of puppet theater held. Only after the war there came the re- petry), therefore, we can expect that eventually, one day newal and flourishing of puppetry in Yugoslavia. It was a comprehensive, synthetic, transparent history of pup- then related to the big cities and theaters that acquired petry in Serbia will be written. professional status. Therefore, puppet theater activity is not doubtfull In the history of puppetry in Serbia the launch whatsoever, either as a premise or a fact in the life of our meeting of professional puppet theaters is undoubted- ancestors; getting closer to our time, it has increasingly ly important. The first meeting of professional puppet been present as art too, hence the pronounced need for theaters of NR of Serbia took place in Zrenjanin in 1962. evaluation. Further, since every history is at the same time Puppet Theatres from Zrenjanin, Novi Sad, Subotica, Niš, an analysis of the situation of theater in society because Belgrade and Zemun participated. Meetings of puppet- “the society is never revealed better than when it pro- eer have been held for 52 years already, but they were jects its own image backwads,” as noted by Charles-Ol- not held every year, for various reasons, so this year it ivier Carbonell (Carbonell 1999: 6), the reasons why the will be the 45th Meeting of Professional Puppet Thea- puppet theater is still marginalized in our country might tres of Serbia. yet be discovered. From all the above it follows that there are numer- Observing puppetry in Serbian countries as a me- ous elements to writing a history of puppetry in Serbia.

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