Serbian comedies by Jovan Sterija Popovic, Branislav Nusic, and Dusan Kovacevic.

In the period between the two world wars, with only a few exceptions, nobody believed that Nusic was a great writer. Today, almost all people familiar with theater and the history of Serbian theater and literature would agree that Nusic was, in fact, the only Serbian playwright of high caliber between the two world wars. Thanks to the turns or whims of history, as well as the more open-minded theater people, Nusic became the most staged Serbian playwright and most popular after World War II. The new generations of theater directors realized that Nusic had a streak of genius and was, perhaps, 50 years ahead of his time for the Serbian theater.

The third playwright in this anthology, Dusan Kovacevic, has been one of the most prolific and popular Serbian playwrights on the Serbian theatrical scene since the 1970s. The first term that comes to mind when thinking about some of Kovacevic's plays is grotesque, especially in The Marathon Family, one of Kovacevic's first plays. He more or less continued in this manner in his other plays. Victor Hugo thought that grotesque was "the richest source nature can offer art." The simplest explanation why grotesque is so effective is that it makes the contrasts more obvious while juxtaposing the ugly and the beautiful, the divine and the unholy, the sublime and the ordinary, the romantic and the dull. If we are directly confronted with beauty and ugliness, beauty starts shining brighter and becomes more obvious, forcing us to appreciate it more and not take it for granted. Kovacevic is a master of the grotesque and, for that reason, his plays may appear somewhat exotic, especially to foreign theater goers.

The Marathon Family play, as well as a movie made in 1982, based on a screenplay by Kovacevic himself and directed by Slobodan Sijan, was so popular in the former Yugoslavia and Serbia that, in 2013, theater director Milica Kralj decided to stage The Marathon Family with the male roles played by female actors. In such a situation, for instance, Grandma Pantelija resembles Josip Broz Tito, and the main goal of all the women in the family is to become CEOs of some kind. This was not the first time that this play was played by female actors. Actually, in 1996, director Jagos Markovic staged the same play with female actors and achieved much success. Similarly, also in 2013, the female roles in Mrs. Minister, directed by Tatjana Mandic Rigonat, were played by male actors at the Bosko Buha theatre.

By presenting these three playwrights and their comedies, we can follow the most important developments in the last few centuries and develop direct and indirect feelings about the state of affairs in Serbian society on many levels, not only on the level of literature and theater. Popovic was more of an intellectual and a didactic educator, desiring to enlighten the general populous and open their eyes through satire within the idea of the comedy of character. Meanwhile, Kovacevic uses his imagination more freely, relies much more on humor, and does not incorporate much satirical tone into his comedies. Somewhere between them, not only chronologically but also stylistically and in terms of the creative method, stands Nusic, as the most remarkable figure of the Serbian theatre.

-Dejan Stojanovic

ABOUT THE EDITOR

BRANKO MIKASINOVICH is a scholar of Yugoslav and Serbian literature as well as a noted Slavist. He has edited many anthologies of Yugoslav and Serbian literature, including Introduction to Yugoslav Literature, Five Modern Yugoslav Plays, Modern Yugoslav Satire, Yugoslav Fantastic Prose, Selected Serbian Plays (co-editor Dejan Stojanovic), Serbian Satire and Aphorisms, and Yugoslavia: Crisis and Disintegration. He has appeared as a panelist on the Yugoslav press on ABC's "Press International" in Chicago, PBS's "International Dateline" in New Orleans, and Voice of America's Serbian Service television program, "Open Studio."

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS

Dennis Barnett (1952) is a Theatre Professor at Coe College. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, where his area of study was the history of the former-Yugoslavia and its intersections in the plays of Dusan Kovacevic, four of which he has translated. In addition, he has translated plays by Branislav Nusic, Nebojsa Romcevic, and Milena Markovic. All of his translations are published by New Avenue Books. He has also edited two books: Theatre and Performance in Eastern Europe, published by Scarecrow Press in 2008 (co-edited with Arthur Skelton) and DAH Theatre: A Sourcebook, published by Lexington Books in 2016. Prior to entering the academic world, Dennis was an Equity actor and director in L.A. and San Francisco. In 1989, he founded the theatre, Upstart Stage with playwrights, Anthony Clarvoe and Carter W. Lewis.

G.N.W. Locke (1927) was born in Scotland and is a distinguished translator of Serbian literature, noted especially for his translation into English verse of The Serbian Epic Ballads: An Anthology (1997, republished 2002). He spent some time in Serbia and, out of his love for the work of Branislav Nusic, decided to translate several plays from his oeuvre, including Mrs Minister, which is presented here.

Milos Mladenovic (1963) was born in the former Yugoslavia where he earned his BA in theater directing. His Belgrade directing credits include The Lion in Winter and Peer Gynt. Upon moving to the United States, Milos received an MFA degree from the Yale School of Drama in directing. There he directed Titus Andronicus and The Cherry Orchard among other plays. Milos has translated the works of Serbian playwrights, Dusan Kovacevic and Biljana Srbljanovic. He resides in Berkeley, California.