Rehearsals of "The Tragic Burlesque" by Dušan Kovačević, Directed by Jagoš Marković, Have Begun at the National Theatre in Belgrade

Rehearsals of the play "The Tragic Burlesque " have begun at the National Theatre in Belgrade, based on the text by Dušan Kovačević, adapted and directed by Jagoš Marković.

This dark comedy, which the National Theatre in Belgrade is preparing in co-production with the National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka, is planned to premiere on May 5 on the Main Stage. 

It will also be the first concrete implementation of the Cooperation Agreement which was signed on February 9 last year in Banja Luka by the managers of the two Theatres, Svetislav Goncić and Dijana Grbić, and which up to this point was reflected in the exchange of several performances from the existing repertoire.

The vivid gallery of Kovačević's "awkward weirdos" will be presented by Nikolina Friganović (Ruža), Željko Erkić (Milan), Petar Vasiljević (Neven), Nela Mihailović (Julka), Aleksandar Vučković (Kosta), Sandra Bugarski (Rajna), Branko Vidaković (Vasilije), Ljubiša Savanović (Doctor)...

The dramaturge is Molina Udovički Fotez, the director, Jagoš Marković, will also choose the music, the visual identity of the play will be entrusted to set designer Matija Vučićević and costume designer Bojana Nikitović, while Ljiljana Mrkić Popović will be in charge of the stage speech.

The plot in "The Tragic Burlesque" takes place in our very recognizable, but twisted reality, in which playing with comical paradoxes between illusions and reality really turns into burlesque. In this piece, which premiered in 1991, Kovačević reassesses family and personal tragedies, small and large disasters that occur in seemingly ordinary human lives.

"Basically, it is still a story about the destruction of a family, as it was when I wrote it. There is a definition, in which I deeply believe, that the family is the epicenter of our life and one of the most important factors in our existence. Our children learn from the postulates on which family relationships are based. Family is the most essential and important school in a person's life. The kind of family one grows up in, that's what kind of a person one will become eventually. (...) The play also deals with the search for lost identity, origin, guilt... All of that together, actually, is a beautiful and somewhat tragic story about theatre," Dušan Kovačević says.

The first reading rehearsal was held on March 27, on World Theatre Day, and with this specific act, the National Theatre wished to actively take part in and mark the day that has been celebrated in the world for more than six decades.