Vida Ognjenovic
WAS THERE PRINCE'S DINNER?
Directed by V. Ognienovic ("Pera Dobrinovic" Stage)

premiere - 8th October 2008

VIDEO CLIPS AND PHOTOS

In the text that has already been referred to as one of the most important Serbian modern dramas, authoress Vida Ognjenovic depicts a still current (just like two decades ago, when it was created) and warning historical apocrypha. Namely, she uses the historically true and recorded event as a motive of her tragicomic story: the anecdotal intention of a group of Novi Sad based politicians to, on the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1889, collect points in the political arena by means of a fair-like reconstruction of the mythical-epic narrative of the 'Prince's Dinner'. The story envelops, on the one hand, their futile search for a person who would play the mythical traitor Vuk Brankovic in this para-theatrical reconstruction, while, on the other hand, the conflict of historical truth and mythomanical manipulable fantasy about the "righteous prince" is given in the form of a discussion between the said group of demagogues and Ilarion Ruvarac, "the father" of modern Serbian historiography. Treating this historical anecdote with a subtle dose of irony, the authoress exposes the mythomanical "patriotism" as a constant element of our mentality, but also as the forthcoming, seemingly rational demagogy of the "new age" ideologist.

Vida Ognjenovic, playwright, stage director. She graduated literature from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade (1963) and directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Art (1965). She began her post graduated studies at Sorbonne in Paris, and received her Master's degree at the University of Minesota, USA (1972).
In the 1977 she was nominated Head of the National Theatre in Belgrade and after that stayed as a director in the same theatre. As a visiting professor she taught at major Universities in the USA. She is a full professor at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad.
She directed more than 100 theatre performances also TV and radio dramas. She wrote many dramas which were staged and performed throughout former Yugoslavia.
For her work she received all the significant theatre awards: Sterija Award for the best text (Was there Prince's dinner?, 1991; Yegor's Road, 2001), Sterija Award for the best directing (Yegor's Road, 2001), Sterija Award for dramatization (Root, trunk and epilogue, 1984), October Award of Belgrade and Golden Wreath of the Festival in Sarajevo for directing (Mephisto, 1984, 1985), "Joakim Vujic" Award for the text (How to make Master laugh, 1998), Award from the Budva City Theatre for dramatic work (2007) and many others.
She published six books: Poisoned Dandelion Milk, An Old Clock (short stories), A House of Dead Scents, Journey into Travel Book, Adulterers (novels), and seven books of dramas. Her prose and dramas were translated into many languages.
She also worked as the Yugoslav (later Serbia and Montenegro) ambassador to Norway.