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CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN DRAMA: SEVERAL LAYERS OF REALITY IN ADDITION TO THE PLAYS with pronounced classical motifs, as discussed in the first article on contemporary Serbian drama,l practically all other dramatic genres are well represented. The only notable exception is pure comedy, which has a difficult time getting off the ground despite the great legacy left by J. Sterija Popovic and Branislav Nusic (and perhaps because of itI). Most of the plays discussed here are basically realistic in content and conventional in form, although the modernistic approach to both content and form is often employed. It is important to add that in these efforts the modernistically inclined playwrights had to conquer the opposition of the traditionally oriented public. It was very difficult, if not impossible, in 1957 to begin a new era with an outright avant-garde approach to theater. Not only was the atmosphere not right, but also many writers were not yet prepared to express themselves in avant-garde terms. For that reason, the first successful play in the new vein, N ebeski odred, was still very much traditionally realistic. At the same time, it had enough of a new spirit to be immediately received as a harbinger of a new theater. To be sure, the play deals with a conventional subject matter-the fate of innocent victims in a concentration camp in Nazi-Germany. But the twist the authors gave to this threadbare theme made N ebeski odred an exciting play for the audience accustomed to drab and predictable plots. Lebovic and Obrenovic were concerned with the fate of the victims in an unusual way; they were less interested in placing the blame squarely where it belongs-on the Nazis-than they were in examining the behavior of the victims themselves, in putting to a hard test their thinking, innermost desires, and their capacity to withstand the pressure during this calamitous experience. A group of eight inmates volunteers to help in the extermination process of the thousands of fellow inmates for three months, during which time their own execution would be postponed. Living in the shadow of death while performing their grisly duty, the eight doomed men discuss among themselves the meaning of existence under such conditions and examine their conscience. Their haunting dilemma is whether to accept their lot or to struggle against the insurmountable odds. That dilemma is only postponed, not solved, by their sudden liber1 This is the second of two articles on contemporary Serbian drama. The first appeared in the last issue of Modern Drama. 370 1970 CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN DRAMA 371 ation by the Allied forces. The shattering discovery of their unsuspected weaknesses, cowardice, and fear for their skin alone seems to be the thrust of the authors' message. Lebovic continues this theme in another play, Haleluja (1965), in which the surviving inmates gather once again in a hospital and continue to torture themselves with· soul-searching questions such as "Why have I survived while so many others have perished?" In the final sequence of this cycle, Viktorija (1968), the author brings his characters for the third and last time together, this time at the trial against the war criminals, during which the executioners and the victims unsparingly exchange their views. The dilemmas that haunt the victims-and the author-are among the most fundamental moral questions: "Who is to judge whom?" "What right do I have to judge my fellow man?" "Can justice ever be achieved?" "What is the meaning of justice after so many have died?" It is understandable that plays like these not only enraptured the audience but also cleared an entirely new path in the development of contemporary Serbian drama at this particular junction. Other plays that are basically realistic and yet signify a certain departure from conventional realism are the plays Razvojni put Bore Snajdera (The development of Bora the Tailor, 1967) by Aleksandar Popovic, and Komandant Sajler (Commander Sailer~ 1967), by Borislav Mihajlovic-Mihiz. Both plays treat themes employednumerous times before, but both add new dimensions. "The Development of Bora the Tailor" is a play about an amoral, peppery, sly, small bureaucrat who takes advantage of his position for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. Certainly not a...

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