Hvar City Theatre Days, Vol. 42 No. 1, 2016.
Original scientific paper
LOUD AUDIENCE
Boris Senker
orcid.org/0000-0001-5158-610X
; Faculty of philosophy in Zagreb, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The article gives a survey and analysis of a series of various loud and noisy reactions of Croatian, mostly Zagreb theatre audience during performances. The survey starts with crucial demonstrations held against German theatre in Zagreb on November 24, 1860, treated in Croatian theatre historiography as the starting point of the continuous operation of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Follows the analysis of information on Zagreb ‘loud audience’ customs and behavior (ovations, boos, claque etc.) in the period from 1866 to 1881 given by August Šenoa (1838-1881) in two books of his Theatre Reports. Special attention is given to Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981) and his demonstrative exit from the performance of rustic and erotic one act comedies by popular playwright Petar Petrović Pecija (1877-1955) in CNT, in 1919. The last five examples of ‘loud audience’ in Croatian theatre given in this article are three performances of plays written by Milan Begović (1876-1948) – pro-martial Easy Service (Zagreb 1915), patriotic Croatian Diogenes (Zagreb 1928) and proto-feminist Without the Third One (Split 1932) – and two performances of plays written by Marijan Matković (1915-1985) – juvenile and rebellious The Case of Graduate Wagner (Zagreb 1935) and antiheroic The General and His Jester (Zagreb 1970). Three of these plays (Easy Service, Croatian Diogenes and The Case of Graduate Wagner) were banned by the authorities because of politically motivated demonstrations in the auditorium.
Keywords
Croatian theatre; loud audience; theatre and politics; theatre criticism
Hrčak ID:
158030
URI
Publication date:
9.5.2016.
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