Theatre
Избирачица
Not translated into English
Kosta Trifković · 1873
Synopsis
In a bourgeois house in Novi Sad, Malčika, a spoilt girl who is hard to please, is of an age to marry, and her parents present suitors to her one after another. She turns them all down: the wealthy Štancika is not clever enough, the journalist Branko is poor and too serious, Tošica is too scatterbrained, and each must wait for her to decide. Saveta, more self-effacing, watches this parade with an unease she keeps to herself.
Context
The play premiered at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad on 25 April 1872 and was printed the following year in the theatre's series of plays, under the subtitle of comic play with singing. Its author wrote for this stage, founded eleven years earlier, where he had made his debut in 1870 with adaptations of German comedies. Against the heroic tragedy then in favour, he defended in it realistic comedy in prose, drawn from the manners of his town.
Who it is for
Three short acts and a simple plot. Nothing in it requires prior knowledge, except a little patience with the customs of arranged marriage in the bourgeoisie of Vojvodina.
Prizes and reception
The best play by its author, it has remained on the reading lists of Serbian schools and in the repertoire of theatres, including the National Theatre in Belgrade.