The beginnings of modern theatre in Serbia are part of the country’s national liberation movement rooted in the decades of Romanticism; its historical development reflects the centuries-long division of the Serbian cultural community between two empires, Ottoman and Habsburg. Theatre companies, drama, performances and institutions developed in tandem among Serbs under Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) rule and those in post-Ottoman Serbia, but the formative influences were exercised by Habsburg-based Serbian intellectuals and artists, educated in Vienna, Pest or Germany, who also became the theatrical pioneers and leading figures in the newly independent kingdom.
The predecessor of the modern period is school drama, which began, belatedly, in 1734 with Manuil Kozačinski’s play Traedokomedija, performed in Sremski Karlovci (Carlowitz, in Habsburg-ruled Vojvodina) by the students of the local lyceum. In 1813, amateurs and an occasional professional actor took the students’ place when the first Serbian play was staged in Pest: “The Nutcracker Bird” (Kreštalica), adapted from Kotzebue by Joakim Vujić (1772–1847), the “founding father of Serbian theatre”.
In 1834, Vujič moved to Kragujevac – capital of Serbia at the time, after the country had been granted significant autonomy by the Ottoman decrees of 1830 and 1833 – on the initiative of ruling Prince Miloš Obrenović. Among the major state institutions – lyceum and college, pharmacy, hospital, orchestra – founded in the new capital was the Knjažesko Srbski Teatar (Serbian Court Theatre, 1835-36), whose manager and principal playwright was Vujić. The first season (1835) featured “Fernando and Jariko” (Fernando i Jarika, by Vujić after Karl von Eckartshausen), “La perouse” (La peruz), “The poor versifier” (Bedni stihotvorac) and “The fugitive” (Begunac). Coinciding with the first session of the National Assembly, it was attended by a prestigious audience, including the prince and his family and members of the Assembly.
The first professional Serbian theatre company, the Travelling Amateur Theatre (Leteće Diletantsko Pozorište), made its debut in 1838 in Vojvodina’s capital Novi Sad. It toured the Serb/Croat-settled periphery of the Habsburg Empire until 1841, when most of its actors passed to the Ćumruk Theatre then established in Belgrade, the country’s new capital. Rapidly transforming from an Ottoman kasaba into a modern metropolis, Belgrade had a vibrant theatre life as numerous companies performed on makeshift stages and décors in inns, hotels and beer halls. The popular Ćumruk Theatre, situated in the customs warehouse, became a landmark and prepared the way for the first permanent national professional companies and theatres: the Serbian National Theatre (Srpsko Narodno Pozorište) of Novi Sad (1861) and the National Theatre (Narodno Pozorište) of Belgrade (1868). The first performance of the Belgrade National Theatre, Đurađ Branković (on the medieval Serbian ruler, written by Karolj Obernjak), took place in an inn in late 1868; the new building (where it is still today) was inaugurated in 1869 with “The posthumous glory of Prince Mihailo” (Posmrtna slava kneza Mihaila, by Đorđe Maletić, 1816–1888).
As these titles indicate, the repertoire was imbued with patriotism and proclaimed the nation’s identity, self-awareness and aspirations. The heyday of Romantic Nationalism is marked by the historical dramas of Laza Kostić (1841–1910; Maksim Crnojević, 1869; Pera Segedinac, 1882), Đura Jakšić (1832–1878; Jelisaveta kneginja crnogorska, 1868; Stanoje Glavaš, 1878) and Jovan Hadžić (writing under the pseudonym Miloš Cvetić, 1799–1869). The narratives immortalized and Romantically glorified a national past that was held up as an inspiration for the nation’s present and future. Comic relief and a counterbalance to high-minded seriousness was found in plays and scenes from village life with “shooting and singing”.
During the mid-century, a dramatic benchmark and a basis of the theatrical repertoire (also for local companies) was provided by the works of Jovan Sterija Popović (1806–1856). The Ćumruk Theatre had opened with his tragedy “The death of Stefan Dečanski” (Smrt Stefana Dečanskog) in 1841. Popović rejected outworn classicist and late-Romantic mannerisms in favour of a more realistic approach in works that encompassed the historical-heroic mode (Miloš Obilić, 1828; Nahod Simeon, 1830), but also involved comic observations of social manners and mentalities (Laža i paralaža, “Liar of all liars”, 1830; Kir-Janja, “The miser”, 1837) as well as realistic and satirical critiques of the political situation (Rodoljupci, “The patriots”, 1849-53).
The long-lasting German influence in Serbian theatre waned by the end of the century, to be replaced by the more down-to-earth style of the Comédie-Française and Paris boulevard theatre, epitomized by Borisav Stanković (1876–1927) and his rustic operetta Koštana (1900) and Branislav Nušić (1864–1938). The Great War marked the end of Romantic Nationalism in Serbian politics and art, while the foundation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918) opened a new chapter in the development of the national theatre.
