Nineteen Fifteen, the Tragedy of a Nation

Production

National Theatre in Niš
Theatre in Kruševac
Cultural Centre Vuk Karadžić – Loznica

The novel is a deeply exciting series of stories told by the eye witness to the tragedy of a nation and a country, the author who shared the tragedy with his people and his country and with the victims in blood until the very end. In the year when Serbia seemed to have disappeared from the historical and geographical map, Strahinja-Ban, the son of Branislav Nušić, was killed as a soldier in the army of the Kingdom of Serbia. The writer dedicated this novel to his prematurely killed child.

Writing the collective and personal tragedy, Nušić began his novel in autumn 1915 and ended it with the events in winter the same year, just before the people and the country, worn out by the war and suffering started retreating over the Albanian and Montenegrin mountain ranges. Writing the Afterword to the novel in March 1920 the writer says: „Although this book is quite voluminous, I never thought of it covering the entire tragedy of 1915. I noted down, observed and sympathized with the events happening around me or that reached me, because I could not see any further as a participant in great troubles. My book ends in Peć, because that is where the tragedy of the people has ended. From here onwards started the tragedies of individuals, each of which deserves one book. “

The premiere of the Nineteen Fifteen, the Tragedy of a Nation, was performed on June 28th, 2013 in Kruševac at the closing of the “Vidovdan 2013“ event, and within the central state celebration marking Vidovdan. The production was performed at the open stage of the amphitheater in the memorial complex „Slobodište“ in front of more than 4,000 spectators and highest officials of the Serbian Government, Serbian Orthodox Church and the cities of Kruševac and Niš.