Performances

The years of crows

drama by Siniša Kovačević

Repertoire

2. November 2026, 19:30Main Stage
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A WORD FROM THE DRAMATURGE
History that moved into drama, a drama that became a novel, a bestseller that grew into a play. That is how much this story wanted to be told – so much that no art form took anything away from it but each new form further enriched it.
She wanted to tell this story so much, so much so that 
This is a story about the fate of Belgrade during the first years of freedom after the First World War. It is a story of love that we cannot resist and which is, of course, forbidden. A story of the times when to love is sinful, and when only love can keep us warm.
While dramatis personae, faced with an unprecedented cold, are trying to make it through the winter by burning books to keep warm, their destinies once again teach us what it is like to live and survive a world war.
Although honour is no longer defended with life today, and fighting duels is a thing of the times gone by, the values we fought for yesterday and today seem only a faint trace compared to the struggles for survival of the days passed, struggles fought for every bite or cure.
Like a teacher who does not give up on her students, this historical fiction warns and reminds us of all the victims that war may bring, and just at the unfortunate moment when the threat of the Third World War is upon us.
Siniša Kovačević's "The Great Drama" has often been described as the most ambitious work of this author. However,  to this statement we have to add the syntagma UNTIL NOW! Because the "The Years of Crows" without any restraint or false modesty pretends to take over that description. Bursting with historical facts incorporated into lyrical motifs, this drama is more than great, it is a work that takes us through events that happened in the past when compared to the time when the plot is set, while doubtlessly anticipating the hardships that are yet to come i.e. that are about to become a part of our more than rich history.

About the Play
Belgrade, 1917 and 1918. The Danube has frozen and the war is already on. So much suffering all around, that the menace in the form of countless crows only completes the biblical atmosphere. Unlike Sartre's "The Flies", crows do not admonish, they are more than symbols. The crows are equal citizens of Belgrade and they are the witnesses of events.
Those were the years of unexpected friendships, profiteers, quiet funerals, hangings, using floor boards as firewood, duels, court martial - both in judicial and social sense, and yes, those were the years when people were longing for love. Years when the intellect loses its value overwhelmed by the needs of mere coping to survive on the streets. From such historical circumstances, the most sincere human stories are born, in which love is impossible to deny and in which such pure and sincere emotion simply must hurt.
 

Danka Sekulović

 

Blic Novosti Radio Beograd Millennium Team Emmezeta Team Triglav osiguranje Vizim Mona Visan European Theatre Convention European Route Italijanski institut za kulturu u Beogradu