Bora Theater Days in Vranje Open With a Stankovic Premiere

On Wednesday evening, in the theater that bears his name, Borisav Stankovic was played by the man who runs that very theater: artistic director Bojan Jovanovic stepped onto the main stage in Vranje as the writer whose 150th birthday is marked this year, while the title heroine is played by the theater’s director, Kristina Janjic Stojanovic. That is how the 46th Bora Theater Days opened on October 21, a festival held under the slogan “Between Fate and Ordinary Life.”

The opening went to the home company, which, as the director told a press conference, is tradition: the festival starts with a premiere from the Vranje theater. This year it is “U potrazi za Tasanom” (“In Search of Tasana”), written and directed by Nebojsa Bradic, with dramaturgy by Aleksandar Milosavljevic and costumes by Marina Medenica. The director stressed that the play is in the competitive program.

What is playing on the Vranje stage?

The piece follows the last days of Bora Stankovic, his inner turmoil and his search for a lost drama, and it draws on his play “Tasana.” At its center is also a woman who remained a riddle to the writer himself. The whole Vranje theater ensemble appears in the production: alongside Jovanovic and Janjic Stojanovic are Radmila Kocevska and Milena Stosic.

Before the premiere, Janjic Stojanovic assessed what the cast means for the house:

“We haven’t had such a large ensemble production in years.”

Director Bradic said he believes the play has what it takes to earn attention, because it touches a question that has followed the writer to this day:

“I believe this play deserves attention and that it sheds light on the enigma that still follows Bora Stankovic.”

The actor who carries that enigma on his back talks about it as a problem of craft, not of reverence. Jovanovic said:

“It was a big challenge for me to create that distance between him as a historical figure and an undisputed giant.”

Speaking to Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), the same actor described the material the play is drawn from:

“There are many layers here, a lot of life, so to speak, because Bora Stankovic, as almost all of us know, had a very eventful life, both in the positive and the negative sense, a turbulent one above all.”

Is it a play about just one writer?

Bradic argues that the text does not stay within its occasion. The director said:

“The fate of an artist in dark times is something that certainly interested us, and that is why this play goes beyond the occasion itself and becomes a universal story. That is why I believe it will live long and have its audience, not only here in Vranje, but on all the stages where it tours.”

Dramaturg Milosavljevic reads the festival slogan through the writer himself:

“We all live our ordinary lives, but only for a few does fate allow their lives to take on another meaning. We experience Bora in different ways, but one thing is certain, he is one of the greatest writers of our language.”

Festival selector Spasoje Z. Milovanovic used the program presentation to reduce the slogan to a question that, as he put it, theater asks of a person:

“The festival has stayed where it belongs, in its own city, in its own slot and in relationship with the plays, the artists and the audience. This year’s selection is based on one essential question for theater: what happens to a person when their life lands between what they were given and what they choose for themselves.”

Which plays come next, and who hands out the awards?

The program holds seven plays in total, and after the Vranje premiere the lineup runs as follows:

• October 22: “Bozji ljudi” (“God’s People”), National Theater in Belgrade
• October 23: “Martin udio” (“Martin’s Share”), National Theater of Republika Srpska
• October 24: “Puknatine” (“Cracks”), Ivan Radoev Drama and Puppet Theater from Pleven, Bulgaria
• then “Una,” performed by Zvezdara Theater
• October 26: “Moje pozoriste” (“My Theater”), Atelje 212
• October 27: “Crno zlato” (“Black Gold”), Belgrade Drama Theater

Two plays in the competitive selection deal with Stankovic’s work. RTS reports that the festival runs until October 28, while the last play in the published program is scheduled for October 27.

A three-member jury hands out the awards, and the audience also rates the plays. Jury member Goran Ibrajter recalled that the festival has a history that does not begin this year:

“Vranje is an important point in the theater life of Serbia. I remember this festival when it was in a different format, that was the early two thousands, but even then it hinted at its importance, not only for this region, but in general.”

Tickets have been on sale since October 2 at the box office of the Bora Stankovic Theater and online. Speaking at the press conference on behalf of the city leadership was Deputy Mayor Milan Ilic, who described the festival as an event that has lasted almost half a century in the south of Serbia.