For the tenth time, traditionally on 9th March, the theatre festival will start. As it seems proper for its jubilee edition, it will include the performances by ten theatres from the towns from different meridians, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Toronto, Canada, through ancient Jerusalem, Israel, all the way to Minsk, Belarus, and Novosibirsk, Russia, as well as the theatres from our neighbourhood: from Sarajevo, Budapest, Podgorica and Bitola, which will be joined, at the end, by the oldest Belgrade theatre – the National Theatre.

All the theatres participating this year in an exceptionally rich festival programme, will present diversified repertory. The spectators will be able to watch the performances that have not been played on our stages so far, whose authors are less known to us. These are, first of all, the drama of the contemporary Argentinean playwright, Claudio Totcachir The Omission of the Coleman Family, then the drama with the topic from artistic life The Duet, by the American
author Otho Eskin, whereas Sergey Kovalev found inspiration for his drama The Poet’s Diary in the destiny of the Belarusian author, Maxim Bogdanovich. Within the festival programme, we will watch the drama You are Losing Your Grip, Your Highness, by Mirko Kovač, the theatrical piece that was presented in Sarajevo, in 1968, and immediately banned. In this play, the author treats bravely, and in his peculiar way, the moral issues of the society. The classical drama has not been neglected, in particular the Russian drama, so we will watch the masterpiece of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, The Inspector General, the greatest comedy of all time, the play that will always be topical, as long as there are authorities, and civil servants performing public functions and services. We will see the performance Chekhov for Two, based on the motives of the pearl of the narrative prose written by the great author, whereas the Jewish tradition will be revived in a contemporary way by Yulia Ginis and actors in the performance of the “Mystorin” Theatre from Jerusalem Dreams about Moses. And the originator of the Serbian drama, Jovan Sterija Popović, is represented with his first comedy, The Liar and the Arch Liar, the work highlighting that we tend to lie and deceive in order to achieve our personal interests, and therefore this phenomenon is present even today.

The festival programme does not leave out the works belonging to the classical literature of the 20th century, so the audience will have the opportunity to watch the drama The Party, by Slawomir Mrožek, from the early stage of his dramaturgy, about the absurd position of common, simple-minded people in everyday life, burdened with various uncertainties, anxieties and fears. In addition, the festival programme includes The Chairs, a well-known play by Eugene Ionesco, one of the most important works of the theatre of the absurd, in which the main characters (Old Man and Old Woman) are suppressed by the imagined characters (Tsar and Orator) and the classical psychological portraying is fully abandoned, i.e. the issue of feelings and consciousness is ousted, and the metaphysical vision of the world is rejected.

As it can be seen, for its tenth jubilee edition, this year’s festival will pre sent ten performances, from ten countries and three continents, which touch upon our contemporary moment, or give us plenty of reasons to think about the most important problems of human existence from time immemorial, which is the basic need in this modern world.

Prof. Raško Jovanović