| dc.description.abstract | The most important Serbian comedian in the XIX century, Jovan Sterija Fifty years after Sterija’s death, in the year of 1904, for the first time The Patriots
performed in the National theatre in Belgrade. Jovan Skerlić, in that period the most
important Serbian historian of literature, in his speech before the performance said that
Sterija’s play was the sad picture, that told us satire sharp and bitter, but the writer’s
messages „never dies”, and like this „it would be good to hear them again, just for remind”.
From the beginning of the XX century up to present times, Sterija’s play The Patriots was performed in over forty different performances, in almost every Serbian professional theatre, and in some theatres in Croatia.
Every period of performing The Patriots put a special mark on the general meaning
of the performance. In one way it was performed before The First World War, in
a second between two World wars, and in a third after 1945. and to the present times. In
every of this periods Sterija’s false patriotism was interpreted in a different way.
This work is about that different performance, and the directors that leave special
trail, like Branko Gavela (performed The Patriots two times in 1929, and 1930), Mata
Milońević (performed „The Patriots” two times in 1949, and 1956), Slobodan Unkovski
(performed The Patriots in 1986) and Dejan Mijaĉ (performed The Patriots two times in
1986, and 2003).
Sterija’s play was the inspiration for Serbian director and theatre writer Radoslav
Zlatan Dobrić to print in 1997. „play about Sterija” with the title „Bitter travel into the
nothing or I must write »The Patriots«”.
We can see that Sterija’s The Patriots are still current in Serbian theatre.Popović
(1806–1856), wrote his best play – satiric comedy The Patriots – around the year 1853.
The word „patriots”, in the title, Sterija used in the ironic meaning – false patriots. Although, the writer wrote on the cover of his play that it was „ready for printing”, the play
was printed after his death. Through The Patriots, Sterija gives us a satiric and objective
view on the middle-class mentality in Vojvodina (today it is an autonomous region in
Serbia, but in the period in which Sterija lived it was part of Hungary), from the period
of the Revolution of 1848. In that period, among Serbian people in Vojvodina, there was
a lot of false patriotism, demonstrated just with words, not by means of action. | pl_PL |
