Croatian-Serbian Theatre Exchange and Strahinja Petrović – The Versatile Principal Actor of the Golden Age of the National Theatre in Zagreb (1920 — 1940) Cover Image

Hrvatsko-srpske kazališne razmjene i Strahinja Petrović – svestrani glumački prvak zlatnoga doba zagrebačke Drame (1920. — 1940.)
Croatian-Serbian Theatre Exchange and Strahinja Petrović – The Versatile Principal Actor of the Golden Age of the National Theatre in Zagreb (1920 — 1940)

Author(s): Snježana Banović
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), Sociology of Art
Published by: Srpsko narodno vijeće, Arhiv Srba u Hrvatskoj
Keywords: Strahinja Petrović; Zagreb CNT; Drama; repertoire; Ivo Raić; Branko Gavella; Croatian-Serbian theatre exchanges;

Summary/Abstract: During the first century of its existence, Zagreb's stages featured many Serbian actors, including Strahinja Petrović, today forgotten. In the interwar period, he was among the most beloved and prominent character actors within the Drama Ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre. As the Ensemble's principal actor, he registered numerous successes, his exceptional acting talent establishing him with both the audiences and the critics over the two decades during which he resided in Zagreb. His acting was regularly described as masterly, as he had a rare ability to achieve a contact of the heart with the auditorium – the audiences would thus swamp the box office the moment a new production was announced featuring his name among the cast. He was compared to the greatest French actor of the day, Louis Jouvet, and played almost three hundred roles, some of which entered the history of the Croatian theatre as matchless. Sensing what was about to happen, in 1940 he returned to Belgrade, the city of his birth, where he remained active in both the Belgrade Dramas Ensemble – the National and the new Yugoslav Drama Theatre – until his death in 1964.

  • Issue Year: 3/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 146-186
  • Page Count: 41
  • Language: Croatian