The Sarajevo War Theatre (Sarajevski ratni teatar, SARTR) was founded on 17 May 1992 on the initiative of Dubravko Bibanović, Gradimir Gojer, Đorđe Mačkić and Safet Plakalo.
Actors and associates of the three existing professional theatres in Sarajevo, which had ceased all activities at the beginning of the Bosnian war, gathered around SARTR and proceeded to give some 2,000 performances during the four years of siege. In January 1993, SARTR was officially recognised by the Sarajevo City Assembly as a public institution of special significance for the defence of Sarajevo. Its spiritus movens and director, Safet Plakalo, has often spoken of SARTR as Sarajevo's spiritual weapon against the surrealism of war, summarising its charter in the catch-cry 'theatre against death'. Despite limited resources, SARTR is today a successful professional theatre company with a number of international co-productions, appearances and awards under its belt.
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or theatre:
“War and culture, those are the two poles of Europe, her heaven and hell, her glory and shame, and they cannot be separated from one another. When one comes to an end, the other will end also and one cannot end without the other. The fact that no war has broken out in Europe for fifty years is connected in some mysterious way with the fact that for fifty years no new Picasso has appeared either.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“People fall out of windows, trees tumble down,
Summer is changed to winter, the young grow old
The air is full of children, statues, roofs
And snow. The theatre is spinning round,
Colliding with deaf-mute churches and optical trains.
The most massive sopranos are singing songs of scales.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)