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Ljubomir Simovic opens 51st Sterijino Pozorje in Novi Sad

Novi Sad, 27 May 2006

The 51st “Sterijino Pozorje” theatre festival opened last night in Novi Sad. Academic Ljubomir Simovic held the opening speech, and the inaugural play was Grasshoppers (Skakavci) by Biljana Srbljanovic, directed by Dejan Mijac, and performed by the Yugoslav Drama Theatre.

Opening the oldest domestic national theatre festival, Simovic recalled that this year and this theatre festival will pass in the memory of the 200th birth anniversary and the 150th death anniversary of the great dramatist and writer Jovan Sterija Popovic.

He pointed out that Sterija, by writing plays in accordance with his time, wished to return modernists to morality and ethics.

Theatre directors have discovered that in his comedies one can recognise very real social situations, said Simovic, adding that as Sterija himself put it, our reality too is “crowded by those who have greater love for people’s money than for the people.”

Six plays will be presented in the official competition at the festival until June 3, selected by Ivan Medenic, and a jury headed by dramatist Jovan Cirilov will decide who will be the recipients of the Sterija awards.

Other presentations at the festival will include presentations by Atelje 212 from Belgrade, two theatres from Hungary and one each from Slovenia and Slovakia, a fact that reflects that this event is a regional festival.

Within the framework of the accompanying events of the festival, at the business centre in Nis this weekend, the 12th international congress of theatre critics will be held, and 40 theatre theorists and active members of theatre from 20 countries will discuss the theme “National theatre and nationalistic theatre”.

The festival also includes the Young People’s Theatre Festival, at which representatives from Serbia and theatre academies from Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Cetinje will take part. The best young actor in these presentations will be given a special award.

Along with the 51st Sterijino Pozorje, the 14th international triennial exhibition of books and periodicals regarding theatre has also opened, at which exhibitors are those who have won awards at the previous 13 exhibitions.