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LEXICON OF YUGOSLAV AMNESIA

Lexicon of YU Mythology, directed by Oliver Frljić, produced by NETA, 2011.

By: Sandro Siljan

During the past two seasons, the ex-Yugoslav theatres are full of plays with topics regarding the memories of the former State. Jugoslvensko dramsko kazalište (The Yugoslavian Drama Theatre) from Belgrade produced the play Born in YU, directed by Dino Mustafić and the Hartefakt fond (The Artefact Fond), while Belgrade’s BITEF Theatre produced a play by Selma Spahić called Hypermnesia. There is also the entire last year’s season of Belgrade’s Atelje 212 (Atelier 212) with a keen title The nEXt/YU. 20 years after Yugoslavia fell apart and 15 years after the beginning of normalisation of international relations, Yugoslavia and its heritage are in demand.

This play by Oliver Frljić is part of this trend by its title which sets the play’s topic. It took the title of a publishing project The Lexicon Of The YU Mythology (edited by: Iris Andrić, Vladimir Arsenijević and Đorđe Matić; Rende: Belgrade and Postscriptum, Zagreb; 2004), which is a richly edited and expensive book that can be described as a scrapbook of sorts, in which its authors, trapped in the idea of the Golden Age, do not allow any conflict or critical review and where memories are replaced by imagination. Beside the title, the play’s production frame also refers to nostalgia for Yugoslavia. The play is a result of a co-production of 6 theatres and associations from the former Yugoslavian republics and independent cantons unified in Nova europska teatarska akcija (NETA, the New European Theatre Action), in which each co-producer participates with at least one actor. Such wide co-production and politically correct casting, seem to announce that the pathetic and non-conflict imagination from the printed edition will only be transferred to the stage. All this for the audience that prefers to escape into the better and happier memories of the past than to face present reality. Oliver Frljić decided for a somewhat different description of Yugoslavia, which is clear from the first scene, in which the former State, played by Joana Popovska, is shown as an old woman, ill with cancer and surrounded by beasts.

After this manifest prologue, the play itself starts with a choreographed quiz on members of the Yugoslav music scene. Linked by true and well known autobiographical facts, there is a sequence of questions on Arsen Dedić, Pankrti and Bora Čorba. Just about enough for the audience to forget what theatre is for and to evoke the memories from the last century. This nostalgic sequence does not last for long because the director realises that the theatre lies and flips the situations, making his task to show the audience the mechanism by which the myths are made from gossip. Hence, the playwright Jasna Žmak, a debutant in this play as herself, suggests that instead of a reminiscence of the well known facts, we input a ‘’virus’’ to the whole story by a gossip that the famous actresses, Milena Dravić and Sonja Savić are lesbians and lovers. Goran Bregović will confide this information to his mistress Lepa Brena, and the gossip mechanics will do the rest, leaving us with a new ‘’fact’’ that Dino Dvornik is son of Bata Živojinović. The mocking of pop culture and its mythology is clear, and the final comment that it is all about the outer look on the brink of petty-bourgeois cliché, director emphasises with a huge sign Jugoslavija made of red neon lights that look like they have been taken from a brothel or a casino club.

Ethically, the most interesting and provocative is the last scene, regarding the nostalgia for the former State. It is an imaginary, post mortem and torturing conversation between Belgrade’s actress Branka Petrić and her late husband Bekim Fehmiu, which can be seen as Frljić’s answer to the sentimental monologue by Branka Petrić on Yugoslavia from the play Born in YU. Fehmiu was a Yugoslavian movie star with an international reputation. In 1987, he gave up acting as a sign of protest against the anti-Albanian propaganda and the following year he committed suicide for, as many claim, political reasons. His mythical and tragic figure is poignantly set in the last scene, where Fehmiu holds up his bloody hands in the air. This scene also quotes the legendary scene from a movie The Feather Collectors (directed by Aleksandar Saša Petrović, Avala film, 1967), which won the Critics Award in Cannes, brought him fame and it alludes to his private tragic fate. The nostalgia for the former State, confronted with the figure of Fehmiu, is recognised as selective amnesia, because it accepts only the sentimental and the non-conflictious memories and as such, it does not only change the picture of the past, but also of the present.

As for the actors, we have to mention Mišo Obradović and Katarina Stegnar who stand out with their rhythmical interplay and imagination, along with Joana Popovska with her convincing and emotional performance. The musical arrangement by the bend Foltin is very good, but they could have been a bit more inventive with their interpretation. The director, Frljić, uses the ‘’seduce and rule’’ procedure. First, hooks the audience in with a bit of Yugoslav nostalgia and when they take the bait, he slaps deconstruction right in their face. The downside of this play is that its communication with the audience depends on knowledge of the context. Frljić’s intrigue, engagement and provocation seduces those viewers that know the context and that are in some way connected to the topic. Those that are not familiar with the characters and the events on the stage, or those that are too young to take Yugoslav nostalgia’s bait, are left with its outer qualities and have a better view of the downsides of the play. There is a lack of fluidity in the performance and the choreography is too predictable.  The Lexicon Of The YU Mythology is a play well needed, but it is a shame that it does not stand as an independent piece, but only as a reaction to the Yugoslav nostalgia that surrounds us.