Darko Gašparović and the works of contemporary Croatian authors on the repertoire of the Rijeka Theatre

Abstract

The ten years that Darko Gašparović had spent in the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka (1988 – 1998), as both the director of Croatian drama and its artistic director, are taken as an incentive to study the scope and nature of contemporary Croatian works produced in Rijeka theatre during this period. The analysis includes the playwriting of several generations of contemporary Croatian authors (M. Matišić, M. Gavran, L. Paljetak, M. Grgić, T. Maštrović, D. Lukić), two adaptations of N. Fabrio’s novels (Practicing Life and The Death of Vronsky), and Gašparović’s play Barač – a life for a refinery. Comparison between the repertoire, on the one hand, and Gašparović’s everyday work in theatre, and his scholarly writings, on the other, reveals that the backbone of the period consisted of the contemporary type of dramatizations and contemporary Croatian plays which often questioned history and politics, literary and theatre canon, and which often contributed to the theatricalization of the city of Rijeka.