Theatre City, Budva/ Belgrade Drama Theatre, Belgrade/ Ljubljana City Theatre/ National Drama Theatre Skoplje

Dušan Jovanović

Život provincijskih plejboja nakon Drugog svjetskog rata ili Tuđe hoćemo- svoje ne damo  (The Life of Provincial Playboys After World War II)

Direction and dramaturgy: Ivan Penović

Translation: Sonja Dolžan

Stage design: Laze Tripkov

Costume design: Aleksandar Nošpal

Composer: Vladimir Pejković

Stage movement: Damir Klemenić

Cast: Lazar Hristov, Julita Kropec, Marko Gvero, Sonja Stamboldžioska, Lazar Nikolić, Vukašin Jovanović, Nejc Jezernik, Marjan Naumov, Jovana Spasić

Dušan Jovanović’s play The Life of Provincial Playboys After World War II  was written in 1972. It was  four years after ’68, and the play was a response, or to put it differently, an escape from reality, and it signified a sort of search for meaning and purpose, as well as the need to be playful. It is important for the one to understand that  this need was present in a generation that  had no time for play it in its own reality.

Conceptualized as an open form of commedia dell’arte, which is  created in relation to  the template of the play Three Cuckolds by and unknown author, this play toys around  with its own absurdity. It laughs in the face of itself and its spectator, in a way that in one instant it gives some hints of the significance and purpose of its existence on stage as well as certain truths of the human nature, only to effortlessly contradict it in the next, and that  in a blink of an eye.

When staged, this piece stands as a symbol of a certain form of resistance. Resistance not only towards the deeply rooted understanding of the purpose of theatre and art, but towards a reality that imposes upon us what we should be burdened with, what we should deal with, and whose side we are to take.

Presently, some fifty years later, that need for taking sides, combined with the importance of collective stance, is, unfortunately, felt even more strongly. For who knows which time in a row, we live in an atmosphere of mass bombardments, wars that bring profit as well as behind-the-scenes political games, all  that at the expense of people who only want their dignity back. And like any other time, this current one has its ways of toning down its many horrors.

Missile bombardment is put second, whilst at the same time media bombardment pulls the wool over our eyes. The technological development, by offering us interaction and different views, heavily burdens the extent of our emotional engagement, all the way to the point of no return. This overstimulation, however, leads to the worst thing of all- indifference.