Indifference is the death of development, criticality and humanity.

Luddite, absurd, youthful. A text bursting with energy, but its rebellion is absolute, timeless and uncompromising. It exists as a living entity, as an end in itself and as a resistance to clever conclusions and "high" art...

Tako Ivan Penovic (Split, 1992) playwright, playwright and director describes the play Dusan Jovanovic which he recently staged on the new stage of the Grad Teatar festival in Budva. The play “The Life of Provincial Playboys after World War II or We Want Others - We Don't Give Ourselves”, directed and dramaturgized by Ivan Penović, and based on the text by Dušan Jovanović, premiered at the “Slovenska plaža” Tourist Resort. In an interview for “Vijesti”, Penović talks more about the work process itself, the play, the ambiance and theater in general, announcing the next performances...

The comedy “The Life of Provincial Playboys after World War II or We Want Others' Things - We Don't Give Ourselves Away” was written in 1972 and first performed in 1973 at the Ljubljana City Theatre. The work was created in the spirit of the sexual revolution and the student spring of 1968, under the influence of the socio-political circumstances in Yugoslavia at the time, to which the youngest generation of artists reacted.

The play's description states that it is a text imbued with Luddism - a specific response of the post-war generation to "difficult" topics, marked by the absence of a search for meaning and solutions, and by accepting events as they are, through play. Within this framework, "Playboys" brings a whirlwind of eroticism, youth and insatiable passion, behind which, "between the lines", one can sense the emptiness, vanity and egoism of a society that chases after pleasure. Half a century after 1968, vanity and aimlessness remain relevant, combined with the search for money and existential fear.

The play is a co-production of the Budva City Theatre Festival, the Belgrade Drama Theatre, the Ljubljana Municipal Theatre and the National Theatre of the Skopje Drama Theatre.

Ivan Penović graduated in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. Since 2012, he has worked as a playwright in numerous Croatian theaters and festivals, including the Croatian National Theater (HNK) Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, the Croatian National Theater Varaždin, the Zagreb Youth Theater, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and the &TD Theater. Since 2014, he has been directing authorial projects and his own plays, including All the Faces of Kim-Jong Un, The Catalan, Flex, You Know Who I Am, The Kafka Process, You Are the First Brave, and Tatko na Tatkovinata.

He has received multiple awards for his directing and dramaturgy, and his works often combine elements of comedy, absurdism, and documentary theater, with an exploration of the relationship between space and performance. From 2019 to early 2025, he was the artistic director of the KUFER Theater Company, and since January 2025, he has served as the director of Drama at the Croatian National Theater in Split.

The premiere at the Grad Teatr opened the regional tour of the play. What was your impression of the first reaction of the audience in Budva?

To begin with, I am satisfied with the process of working on this play. A seemingly simple, yet very complex text, which we decided to perform in four languages. A very unconventional comedy performed by actors of very different performance styles and acting schools... Therefore, it was difficult for the entire play team to predict what type of reaction we would get at the premiere.

But it seems that we may have been asking a little too much, because we were received very well at both the premiere and repeat performances, and we look forward to future trips around the region.

The tourist resort “Slovenska plaža” as a stage space brings a specific atmosphere. To what extent did the setting at the premiere function as you imagined it? What can an outdoor space offer to the director that a classic stage cannot?

Choosing this location proved to be a great success. I wanted to play in the surroundings of a tourist resort, and it is hard to imagine a better complex than “Slovenska plaza”. The entire team slept in accommodation right next to the stage, which made these final days even more unique and of higher quality, because we were able to fully focus on the show, without the distractions of the tourist crowds.

Acting in an environment is always a challenge. You have to master the environment, and only then benefit from it. Light, sounds, passers-by, weather conditions, technical capabilities - all these are elements that you control in the black box of the theater, and here they are set for you, changeable and not always ideal. For an actor, this often means that he has to raise his presence and type of expression to a higher level in order to "rise" from the environment, especially if it is idyllic like the one we played in, and for a director, the environment is a special challenge, because either he will win it over to his favor, or the environment will swallow him up completely.

The play is performed in four different languages. How did this linguistic dynamic affect the reception?

The beginning of work on the play was quite exhausting. It took a few weeks for our ears to get used to hearing and speaking in so many similar, yet different languages in the room and on stage. But at some point you start to understand, then adapt to it, and eventually borrow, or rather, use expressions from all languages.

I believe that the mutual understanding we gained while working on this play was transferred to the audience, and that they would understand most of it even without the translation on the screens. Because the actor's body speaks a lot even when it doesn't say words.

Of course, certain parts of the text, especially localized humorous remarks, will work better in their own field, but therein lies the special charm and quality of the journey of this play organized by RUTE.

Dušan Jovanović's text leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Did you feel at the premiere that the audience accepted this “intentional ambiguity” of the point?

I wouldn't agree that it leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but rather for interpretation, or rather the type of staging.

In terms of interpretation, the biggest obstacle in setting up this text is that it is so, extremely simple in its meaning that it is initially difficult for you to accept it. This text is ludicrous, absurd, youthful. It bursts with energy, but its rebellion is absolute, timeless and uncompromising. This text exists as a living entity, as an end in itself and as a resistance to clever conclusions and “high” art.

When you accept his unrestrainedness and unpretentiousness, only then can you begin to work on him as he demands. That is the greatness of Dušan Jovanović, and I think that is what the audience loved most about this play.

Is it more important to you that the audience understands the message or that they leave the theater with questions?

What matters to me is the consistency of the reaction. The creation of a wave. I am happy when the audience likes what they are watching, just as I am happy when I see part of the audience leave during the performance. It is important that we have an opinion. Indifference is the death of development, the death of criticism and the death of humanity.

The ensemble is young, diverse in language and acting school. How did these differences manifest themselves in live performance in front of an audience?

They are lively. They are full of energy. The fact that they are so different in such an energetic outburst only contributes to the idea of this text. I was not trying to equalize them, but to bring out the best in each of them.

The play will now be performed in several countries in the region. Will you, based on the premiere, change any elements in future performances?

Comedies always evolve and are supplemented through their reruns. It is possible that we will “step on” some parts that we recognize so that certain audiences will notice them more. The occasional sarcastic reference to local “bosses”, the occasional expression from the nearby streets, but nothing major. The structure, however disheveled it may be, is solid.

What do you expect from audiences in other cities and countries? Will differences in cultural context significantly affect the reading of the play?

I don't think the overall reading of the play will change drastically. The themes and issues presented in this text are universal and typical, especially for the former Yugoslavia. Some parts will fare a little better or get more reactions, but "we want what belongs to others, we won't give what belongs to ourselves" applies everywhere.

How political can theater in our region be today without becoming pamphlet-like?

Theatre is always political. Because even when, as is the case here, it completely avoids referring to politics and the state of government, it only proves how much resistance it offers to authority by its very existence. Because after all, theatre is financed in one way or another with state money, in most cases.

This is just one of many perspectives on this issue, but in any case, pamphletism can be completely avoided with good thought.

If you had to pick one moment from the premiere that particularly stuck in your memory, what would it be?

I watched most of the show from the window of my hotel room, since our accommodation was right in front of the stage. I've never experienced that before, and the question is whether I will again. A unique experience.

Is there a topic or genre that you haven't tried yet, but feel you should?

I work in comedy, both as a writer and as a director. So, I'm a comedy writer. Except for a few excursions into a more dramatic form. And I plan to continue doing that. Comedy has so many different ways of expression, so many different tones and forms of application, so many angles of view, that I try to specify myself even more within it, not the other way around.