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Creating New Comic Stereotypes on the Croatian Postwar/Transition Stage Boris Senker In the first two decades of the socialist regime in post–World War II Yugoslavia, the number of public theatres in what is now Croatia substantially increased, and the state and local authorities preferred to see comedy used on the stage either for pure entertainment (that is, not raising ideological and political issues at all) or for constructive criticism of the new society in progress.1 To fulfill these goals, two specialized theatres were founded in Zagreb: The Comedy Theatre (for “pure entertainment”) and The Satirical Theatre (for “constructive criticism”). Croatian comic theatre artists did not accept these divisions , however. Instead, entertainment and criticism were mixed as the genre of “political farce” or “grotesque tragedy” became the core segment of a political theatre, which was subversive at least in its intentions and self-perception.2 Understanding the stage as the best place for undertaking symbolic political and social actions, Croatian theatre from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s was preoccupied mostly with contemporary society and the unrecognized (officially) tensions between a discourse of force and a discourse of reason, politics and art, private truths and public lies, utopian projects and crude reality. In dealing with these issues, the comic theatre created a set of stock characters fashioned on contemporary social types such as, for example, Party Chief, (Young) Idealist, Turncoat, Fearful Dissident, Toady, Crook, Informer, Ideal Secretary , Honey Girl, Shrew, and so forth.3 Created onstage by the members of three, or perhaps four, generations of actresses and actors, each of these stereotypes underwent a series of formal changes, but some fundamental features—vocabulary, mimicry, gesture, significant costume items and/or props (as various at- 24 B O R I S S E N K E R tributes), even vocal characteristics—remained constant, making a preliminary identification of dramatis personae easier. Party Chief of the early socialist period, for example, wore a long leather coat, leather visor cap, shirt without tie, and boots. He had a Stalinesque mustache, spoke in a deep, harsh voice, swore, pounded the table to show “who’s the boss,” treated all women as members of his unofficial harem, and drank and ate a lot. After the 1960s the leather coat and boots were replaced by a gray suit and red tie; the gestures became more polite, but the mentality and the language of this stereotype did not substantially change; and the heavy mustache remained the attribute of power and manliness. An Idealist (mostly young and therefore uncorrupted) was Party Chief’s regular antagonist. The Idealist was almost always a man because women were marginalized in Croatian political theatre, as well as in politics, and his appearance suggested a sort of blindness to reality, to everyday life, and a lack of practical skills: he wore spectacles, because he was short-sighted in all senses of the word, his clothes were shabby and out of any fashion, his worn-out briefcase a mix of papers, books, and magazines. His speeches were passionate and impressive but were given at the wrong place, in the wrong time, and for the wrong audience. Having no personality and functioning as a distorted mirror and/or loudspeaker of the most powerful person, group, or organization in the represented community, Turncoat was one of the most despised characters , the object of mockery in both the comic theatre (by other characters ) and in the society at large. His transformations were a chronicle of the political and ideological changes throughout his lifetime. All the past and present ideological discourses and patterns of behavior—especially monarchist, Stalinist, and Titoist—were stored in him, and each could be restored when expedient.4 The stereotype of the Fearful Dissident was characterized by a contrast between brave, radical criticism of official policy and fearful conduct : whispering, turning around, changing the subject of conversation or hurriedly leaving the stage at the first sign of any danger. Toady became a caricature of Party Chief: his voice was either goatish, or he stuttered; his mustache, for example, was more like a toothbrush or a comb than like the heavy Stalinesque mustache of his paragon; instead of pounding the table...

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