Sanja Nikcevic

HISTORICAL PLAYS IN SEARCH OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CROATIAN THEATER TODAY

One of the basic paradoxes of the Croatian stage can be found in the series of plays based upon the lives of heroic figures in Croatian history. These plays are always presented with a great deal of pomp, but rarely enjoy long runs, and fit very well into Brook's definition of "dead theater" - lofty and boring. The question then remains: why have people in the theater profession insisted upon doing the same type of play time after time ever since the 19th century, when they themselves admit that they "cannot even be watched" anymore?

The playwright has very little poetic license when he chooses themes about the lives of heroic figures from Croatian history. He must work under two pressures: that of the myth consciousness of the Croatian people, and that of politics.

The heroes of romance in the ironic mode

At first, the pressure of myth consciousness requires appropriateness, which means that the writer is permitted to employ only one mode: romance. According to Northrop Frye, who in “Anatomy of Criticism” divides Western literature into five modes, the hero in romance is superior in degree to other men (not superior in kind as god, the hero of the first mode - the myth). If this hero is superior only to other men, we are dealing with a knight, but if he is also superior to his environment, then we are dealing with a saint.

The fact that romance is written about heroic figures from Croatian history expresses the writer's relationship toward the characters. This is most effectively illustrated by the works which revolve around the two most prominent Croatian noble families: Zrinski and Frankopan. The main characters in most of these plays are "prodigies of courage and endurance". They are still human, but they display excellence either as warriors or as saints, while in some works they enjoy both qualities. A repertoire of miraculous occurrences is common in these plays, while there is no dramatic dialogue. Because the characters are either good or evil, and as such, belong to different world.

Everything in the plot which is not written in the appropriate mode is either dropped or rationalized. For this reason, in dramas about the well-known Zrinski-Frankopan Conspiracy (for the Croatian independence against Austria, finished tragically for the conspirators in 1670) some facts are never or are rarely mentioned. For example, Nikola Zrinski, the conspirator’s brother is never mentioned because he consider himself to be a Hungarian, not Croatian poet. The conspirators' alliance with the Turks is suppressed because it ruins their image as Christian saints. In the instance where the alliance with the Turk is mentioned it is explained and rationalized at length. Even the Conspiracy itself, although historically proven, is sometimes avoided because it is felt to be inappropriate (Nikola Sop in "Eternal Prelude").

Attempts to depart from the accepted mode of romance have generally been rejected either by the critics or by the publics. Strozzi's “Zrinjski”, for examples, a play of the high mimetic mode, a tragedy which depicts the tragic shame of the hero's indecisiveness, still remains tolerated, but not vaulted enough. “The Last Zrinjski”, a melodrama by Higin Dragosic, featured Ivan Gnade as its main character. Because of Gnade's unpowerful position he was considered inappropriate for the mode, and this play was either ignored or denounced as worthless by the critic, in spite of its overwhelming popularity among the public. Marijan Matkovic's play "The General and his Jester" was written in the ironic mode. Instead of depicting the Battle of Siget (that Nikola Subic Zrinski led against the Turk 1566) from a hero's point of view, Matkovic shows it to us through the eyes of Alapic. Alapic is the only surviving knight from the battle, shown as a person without any power and in fact, without any chivalrous aspiration.. This attempt was denounced as blasphemy not least because Zrinski appeared on stage in his underpants. It is then no wonder that today's authors still create romance.

A Schizophrenic Situation

The pressure of myth consciousness requires that history be respected as well, but only if the rules of appropriateness remain undisturbed. History is important to myth consciousness, not as a string of facts, but as a confirmation of the assertion that these heroes belong to Croatian history - as a confirmation of identity.

At the same time, every play is judged according to theatrical aesthetics, which puts playwrights and theater professionals in a schizophrenic position: they must create dramatically interesting romances. This is very difficult to accomplish because drama is that which occurs between humans and so begins with the third, high mimetic mode. Only for a god dying is joy. Frye claims that Western literature is currently in the epoch of the fifth mode, irony, which presents the hero as being inferior to us. In irony the writer recounts the story without commentary and moralization which is the basic characteristic of the romance. The romance is thus a mode of prose, so it is no wonder that these plays are more beautiful to read than to watch. Why then do theater professionals today in Croatia insist so strongly upon an unsuitable mode for the plays about heroic figures in Croatian history, while irony has long been in use for other themes in theater?

The answer lies in the fact that in Croatia the romantic mode is still unfulfilled. We still lack epics, ballads, stories about Croatian heroes and saintly characters, not to mention historical debate, or even media coverage for important happenings. All these together confirm national identity. According to Frye, every nation aspires to fulfill each mode because each one naturally derives from the one preceding it. For this Croatian tardiness - only politics can be responsible.

The Pressure of Politics

Through the course of Croatian dramatic literature, themes which revolve around the conspirators and their noble families appear in very unnatural discontinuity, with four waves of prosperity, three pauses and one intermezzo - because of the politics.

The first wave came in the second half of the 19th century, along with the awakening of national consciousness and another Croatian rebellion against Austria-Hungary. During this period, eight plays about heroes form Croatian history were written. Politics very clearly determined even the themes of Croatian romance. The leading Croatian politician Ante Starcevc and the members of his political party renounced in the Croatian Senate Nikola Subic Zrinski, who with the sacrifice of his life stopped the Turks in that Battle of Siget as an Austrian servant, because he did it in the name of Austrian king. In the same place the conspirators were acclaimed as carriers of statehood. So, after that time very little was said about Subic, while the conspirators remained a constant source of dramatic inspiration.

The first break lasted from 1900. until 1918, because during the First World War "it was not advisable to write against the Habsburgs", Austria-Hungary's leaders. Thus the flourishing of Croatian romance was impeded by politics.

The second wave of prosperity came after the First World War with the birth of the Kingdom of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Kraljevina Srba-Hrvata-Slovenaca). This was the time of Ogrizovic's and Strozzi's writings with the attempt to try another mode.

The third wave came with "the Croatian Spring" in 1970, when it looked as if Croatia might gain partial sovereignty within socialistic Yugoslavia. Although only one play (by Ivan Raos) was written at this time, there were numerous production of older works.

The third break began after 1971 when the leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, condemned the Croatian politicians because of their nationalism. For twenty years it was forbidden to mention the Zrinski-Frankopan theme in public.

One intermezzo interrupted this period: Miro Gavran wrote "The Conspirators" (1984) that was produced as a radio-drama and played in the smaller auditorium of Zagreb's ITD Theater.

The fourth and the latest wave of prosperity was made possible and inspired by the emergence of the Croatian state in 1990. Mostly old plays are produced, some novels have been dramatized, while only one new play has been written: Vladimir Stojsavljevic's "Katarina Zrinska od Frankopana".

Theater as a Barometer of Croatian Freedom

From this tour of the Zrinski-Frankopan themes, one can see that they are a sort of a barometer of Croatian freedom. Whenever Croatia begins to hope for freedom and believes in the possibility of its own independence within some community, it always reaches out for these dramas. Each government uses them as its mouthpiece during its struggle for power. Once the government is in power, however, these themes are seen as threatening. The Conspiracy is a theme based upon revolt against government, and it is not advisable for the people to identify with mythical heroes of that type. So then the government bans them or designates them as undesirable.

It is because of the political breaks in the natural flow of the development of the romance that playwrights continue to write and directors to stage romances. Over and over they have to begin where the last wave left off. Again and again they are hoping, under the pressure of a discontented myth consciousness, to fulfill that missing mode of romance once and for all.

Why is that so important, even today? Speaking in political terms Croatia was always subject to someone and in some conjunction. For example, being minority in former Yugoslavia we used to define ourselves negatively - Croats were not Slovenes, Serbs... After independence we became the majority, so we cannot define ourselves negatively any more. Now we have to say who we are. And mode of romance was the mode just for that in others nations. So that is why we are trying to recreate that completely inconvenient mode for the stage at the end of the 20th century.

The pressure of a discontented national consciousness to fill the void of romance does not only exist in the theater, but in all the other arts as well. However, the theater is, more than any other art form, the child of its time and of the moment of its emergence. So it is the easiest for the interpretation of faulty and missing modes.

When the Zrinski-Frankopan themes do surpass the romantic mode (as has been fulfilled in education, the media and other arts) and go on, finally, to modes without the burden of myth consciousness, this will be a sign that we have truly succeeded in creating our own independent state and in setting national consciousness free. And that is something which every nation strives for.

(1996)