Personal Angle RCC – JOBS BUT ALSO CULTURE

  • 03 Dec 2014
  • Personal Angles
Branislav Nusic's „Gospodja ministarka“ (The Cabinet Minister's Wife) by Belgrade’s  “Bosko Buha” theatre company. (Photo: svet.rs)

Branislav Nusic's „Gospodja ministarka“ (The Cabinet Minister's Wife) by Belgrade’s “Bosko Buha” theatre company. (Photo: svet.rs)

Sarajevo - The National Theatre in Sarajevo will host today Belgrade’s  “Bosko Buha” theatre company with one of the most famous comedies in Southeast Europe -  Branislav Nusic's „Gospodja ministarka“ (The Cabinet Minister's Wife).

A hundred and fifty years after his birth  the comediographer from Serbia, Branislav Nusic (born as Alkibijad Nusa) is still modern and relevant because the scathing social satire he wrote a century ago is something we recognise today as a part of contemporary life in our region, a leftover from the past which burdens our present and future. Nusic was a merciless critic of society’s ailments, many of which have no cure to this present day. He spent two years in jail for a poem which was perceived as being against the monarchy at a time when the "L'État, c'est moi" principle was alive and well. Nusic's admirers would say it is a problem we still live with.

For Sarajevo, tonight’s show is also relevant because Branislav Nusic was the director of the National Theatre in Sarajevo in the 1920s and the RCC is grateful to the National Theatre for its kind hosting of the show. As we are to the ensemble of the “Bosko Buha” theatre company from Belgrade and the director of “Gospodja ministarka”, Tatjana Mandic Rigonat. She says that “the play tells us just how far people are prepared to go in order to taste the glory of political power and dominance“. Her vision of the play is based around the travesty of power and the transvestism that she sees on the contemporary political scene. For emphasis, female roles are played by men and the only actress on stage plays a child.

This will be the 75th performance of the play which has been shown to critical acclaim and full houses in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia... In Sarajevo, the tickets were sold out within hours. The RCC’s primary role in the region is in our name – regional cooperation. Primarily in the economic field, in job creation and Euro Atlantic integrations. But the RCC also recognises the importance of arts and culture in rebuilding the soul of the region and bringing it closer to its EU ideals and membership. Therefore, we are proud to have played our part in bringing this exceptional play to RCC’s host city of Sarajevo and will continue to galvanise regional cooperation in this field as well.

Goran Svilanovic