The Life of Provincial Playboys after the Second World War or We Want What’s Foreign and Won’t Give Away What’s Ours

The production is dedicated to the fifth anniversary of Dušan Jovanović’s death

At first glance, the comedy The Life of Provincial Playboys after the Second World War or We Want What’s Foreign and Won’t Give Away What’s Ours, stands out in the early dramatic work of Dušan Jovanović, as it stays fairly faithful to the form of a comedy. It even draws on a template titled Li tre Becchi by an unknown Italian author, which belongs to the tradition of commedia dell’arte. The Playboys was written in 1972 and first performed at the Ljubljana City Theatre a year later. It was written in the spirit of the sexual revolution and the Spring of 1968, but was also influenced by the situation in the then Yugoslavia, to which the artists of the youngest generation responded. In their works, a new phenomenon emerged, the so-called ludism – a unique response to the “difficult” themes of the post-war generation. Ludism is characterised by a complete detachment from any quest for meaning, answers or solutions to man’s existential distress; it prefers to accept things as they are and, instead of seeking a way out of this distress, to let oneself go with the flow of events in a relaxed play. All this is also true of The Playboys. It is a whirlpool of joyful eroticism, of youth, of unbridled passion that never gets satisfied. But the undertones also reveal emptiness, banality and egoism of a society that is constantly chasing pleasure. Today, half a century after 1968, the emptiness and aimlessness are still present, but they have been joined by the pursuit of money and existential fear.

Dušan Jovanović (1939-2021), playwright, director and essayist co-shaped the Slovenian and wider regional theatre scene for more than five decades. In his early years, he earned a reputation as an enfant terrible, but after 1970 his creative career began a steep ascent. With the broad sweep of a holistic author, he is a key authority in the renewal of the contemporary language of drama and the stage. He directed well over a third of the world premieres of his own plays, as well as many other works, more than 90 altogether. He received numerous awards for his work, including seven Borštnik Awards for Directing and four for best overall production, the Prešeren Fund Award and the Prešeren Award for his creative oeuvre.

Ivan Penović (1992), a young Croatian playwright, dramaturg and director, is already paving his way among the most exciting authors in the region, with his holistic and committed approach. A turning point in his career was the award-winning production of You Know Who I Am produced by the Croatian National Theatre Zagreb. In 2025, Ivan Penović took over as the artistic director of the Croatian National Theatre Split.