Fifty years ago the Atelier 212 theatre was founded in Belgrade with the idea of staging new European avant-garde plays and creating a new aesthetic to extend the boundaries of theatrical art. Some of the plays and interpretations seen at Atelier 212 are considered the pinnacle of theatre history and have become legends.

By Vesna Knežević Baletić
Photo by Courtesy of Atelje 212

Belgrade's Atelier 212 theatre celebrated half a century of its founding on November 12^th. The celebration began with the programme Remembrance - Everything You Have Always Wanted to Know about Atelier 212 but Dared not Ask, in which actors, directors and other eminent guests spoke from early morning to late afternoon about interesting events such as rehearsals, premiers, guest tours, and told anecdotes about the theatre.

The most eminent personalities of local theatre stood before the microphone in an open session. In the evening Too Young for Fifty Years Old was performed, directed by Alisa Stojanović, while the book Travel to Alaska by Bora Ćosić, published by "Prosveta" was also presented. The retrospective celebration programme was rounded off on the 19th and 20th of November with Darko Lukić's Tesla Electric Company, directed by Tomaž Pandur and co-produced by the Pandur and Ulysses theatres. The celebration of Belgrade's favourite theatre was attended by hundreds of distinguished figures from cultural, public and of course theatrical circles from not only Serbia, but from the former Yugoslav republics. Atelier 212 has today accomplished its goal from the time of its founding 50 years ago - to overcome geographic, political and mental boundaries in the name of art and culture.

Atelier 212 was the creative scheme of a group of theatre figures, intellectuals, literary types and filmmakers who wanted to establish a theatre that would promulgate a new aesthetic and perform new avant-garde drama that was already flourishing and had great influence in Europe.

The theatre was officially opened on November 12, 1956, in a small 212-seat theatre in the old "Borba" building, with a premiere of Goethe's Faust directed by Mira Trailović. That same year, Atelier 212 was the first theatre in Eastern Europe that staged Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The great success of that play opened the way to staging an entire series of other avant-garde plays at this, and later, in other Belgrade theatres. Atelier 212 staged Sartre, Ionesco, Faulkner, Camus, Pinter, Joyce, Ruževič, T.S. Eliot, Kopit, Genêt...

The theatre enabled audiences in this part of the world to see the astounding works of these authors and playwrights for the first time on stage. The Atelier also "discovered" domestic authors and staged Brana Crnčević, Aleksandar Popović, Dušan Kovačević, Milica Novković, Borislav Pekić, Slobodan Selenić, and Ljubodrag Simović...

The first manager of Atelier 212 was Radoš Novaković, a film director and professor at the FDA, followed by Bojan Stupica, a legend in Belgrade's theatrical life. Hitherto assistant Mira Trailović became the head of Atelier in 1961 and remained in this position for 22 years. Under her leadership, Atelier 212 became a cult Belgrade theatre and attained international fame. Together with Jovan Ćirilov and other associates, Mira Trailović initiated the BITEF festival, one of Europe's great theatre festivals, which was organised in 1967 at Atelier 212, and is still going strong. Subsequent managers of Atelier 212 were actor Dejan Čavić, directors Ljubomir-Muci Draškić and Nebojša Bradić.

Theatre and film actor Svetozar Cvetković has been at the helm for the last ten years.

Perhaps it is rather daring, but by no means untrue, to say that Belgrade would not have been what it was in the last half of the 20^th century without some of the most popular performances produced at Atelier 212. It wouldn't have been the same if Zoran Radmilović hadn't played King Ubi and Radovan III, if Mira Stupica hadn't played Maria Fighting Against the Angels, if we hadn't seen Bata Stojković in Korešpondencija and Ljiljana Krstić in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, if Dušan Prelević and Dragan Nikolić hadn't sung "Let the Sunshine In" in the musical Hair immediately after its New York's premiere. The most popular plays of Atelier used to run up to 20 years, many more than 300 times; audiences would have known all the lines from King Ubi or Radovan III by heart if Zoran Radmilović had followed Alfred Jarry's and Dušan Kovačević's original lines. Masterful improvisations were a trademark of Atelier, just like its bards.

Atelier not only gathered great directors and actors, but the Atelier's buffet was almost as famous as its great actors and cult plays. The restaurant was a meeting place for creative people and intellectuals, some of the best minds of the day; Borislav Mihailović Mihiz, Borislav Pekić, Dobrica Ćosić and Matija Bećković hung around with actors and directors, giving them support in creating new ideas, cultivating spirit, along with lines and witticism that have become Belgrade legends.

The restaurant only once faced the danger of being silenced. The danger didn't come from authorities who looked on more or less approvingly on Atelier, but from the Grand Dame of local theatre, Mira Trailović, who once had the gall to ban alcohol at the theatre's buffet. Legend has it that the theatre's actors moved to a nearby café bar that same day. Not being used to being outsmarted, Mira sent the secretary to the café bar to see what her actors were drinking. The actors saw the secretary and asked her what she was doing, and she told them. "Excellent", said Dragan Nikolić and ordered drinks for the whole café. He sent the bill via the same secretary back to Mira with the message - "Madam, it is a custom with us that whoever asks what people are drinking buys a round of drinks". Mira paid the bill and the buffet was soon reopened. And so it goes until today.