A Hard Life

In another period in time Unkovski staged the "Croatian Faust" and "Theatrical Illusions" in this house, performances that Belgrade still remembers. Because of the stormy events in 1991, Unkovski didn't wait to attend the premiere of his last piece Theatrical Illusions. He saw the play these days.

"It was very moving for me. Misa Zutic, Zarko Lausevic and Mira Furlan are no longer in the play. I came to Belgrade again when I had something to say, when I found "Powder Keg", when I found something that speaks of the situation which was just hinted at in Illusions. I am aware of how my coming here is looked upon at home and here. That is why I spent the first month out of the public eye, not wishing to be an attraction. I didn't come here to resolve the Serbian question, but to do what I love, in the house, in the theater where my play is still being performed today."

VREME: How do Belgrade and its theaters strike you today?

UNKOVSKI: Much has changed. Belgrade's colors have faded, there is xenophobia in the air. The language has changed, the criteria, the people. I went to the Atelje 212 theater, and I didn't know the public. When I asked a good friend of mine, an actress, if the theater toured, she said that they hadn't gone anywhere last year, and this year they'd been to Krusevac because the links with this city were good. I remember when they went to Mexico, London. Getting used to this situation is the most terrible thing I've seen in Belgrade.

VREME: Does Skopje suffer from the "Belgrade syndrome"?

UNKOVSKI: No. In spite of economic and social problems, the atmosphere in Macedonia is good. After a long while, I feel good there. There's energy and enthusiasm in the air. The privatization of middle-sized firms has started, there are many small businesses. Everybody's trying to do something. Foreign investors are testing the water. I don't know if all this energy will develop in the direction of a better life or a war. You've seen what's happening over the opening of an ethnic Albanian university. Its something we've been witnessing in these areas for decades. It's difficult to make forecasts, but experience does teach us something: it's stupid to segregate. A strictly ethnic university is the beginning of everything else. The next phase are tree trunks blocking roads. I'm not a supporter of rights won in the street, but through institutions. The first always leads to extremes.

VREME: To get back to Gunpowder Keg. It has a lot to do with illusions.

UNKOVSKI: There will be a lot of laughter even in a tragic play like this one. It is tough, just like life has become in these regions. This is a text which comes after illusions or before: it deals with people who have done what they have done, i.e. all of us.

VREME: Who is Dejan Dukovski, the young and obviously talented writer of the piece?

UNKOVSKI: He is a young man, an assistant at the Faculty of Drama in Skopje. He has written a number of plays. I think that Gunpowder Keg is his best text so far.