TThe scene in which he threw his salad bowl onto the floor may not sound like the most dramatic moment, but it sent ripples of recognition through the audience at the National Theater in Pirot, southeastern Serbia, on a mid-February night. It spread.
The salad bowl incident occurred on the way. “Our Son” is a moving film by Patrick Lazic, a young writer and director from Pula, Croatia, about the relationship between a young gay man (Amar Čorović) and his parents (Dragana Valagić and Aleksandar Jinic). It’s an interesting play. The play takes place over the course of an emotionally charged family dinner, where it is very clear that the young man’s parents are still struggling to accept his sexuality. They constantly blame each other and themselves. Eventually, things will spill over. Tears fall. The salad bowl is overturned.
Piloto is a relatively culturally underprivileged town in southern Serbia that is considered more socially conservative than cosmopolitan Belgrade, but the audience included students from local high schools who had been brought there by their teachers. It was noticeable that there was a mix of different generations, including those in the class. Although the themes explored in the play remain sensitive in Serbia, the majority of audiences responded warmly to the play. For many, there was a sense that this play fulfilled a need. “My friend’s family has had a similar experience,” one woman told me afterward.
Serbia decriminalized homosexuality in 1994, but same-sex couples cannot marry or adopt children, and homosexuals can still face hostility. In 2010, a Pride parade in Belgrade was violently disrupted, and although there have been no incidents at recent Pride parades, strict enforcement remains in place. Vandals recently smashed windows at Belgrade’s Pride Information Center, the latest in a series of attacks on the premises.
Our Son was commissioned by the Serbian cultural NGO Heartifact in conjunction with Europride 2022 in Belgrade. Determined to write something “personal and honest,” Lazic decided to write a family drama about the kinds of conversations he had not yet been able to have with his parents. “Every silence in my family was written down on paper. It was like psychotherapy,” he laughs.
The play has become one of Heartifact’s most popular shows, but it’s become more of a ritual, Lazic said. Young people often return to the show with their parents and other family members. It helps that the play is funny and shows a genuine warmth for the characters.
Lazic recalled last year’s performance, where there were many older people in the audience, some of whom were crying. Afterwards, they told him that the children had bought the tickets for them. Lazic sees himself reflected on stage and understands that he needs to use the media to present himself to his parents. His 2009 TV movie, A Prayer for Bobby, about a young man whose mother cannot accept his sexuality, had a similar impact on him. But “Our Son” is also a play about self-acceptance, he insists. “This is the story of an independent young man who no longer needs the approval of his parents.”
Heart Fact was founded in 2009 by Andrei Nosov with a mission to use art to address the unprocessed pain of the region’s past. Most of its works address social issues. Her longest-running show, Doruntina Baša’s The Finger, which depicts the plight of a Kosovo woman whose husband and son are still missing after the 1998-1999 war, was nominated for an Oscar. The 2020 film Quo Vadis, Aida? ” star Jasna Djuricic appears.
It wasn’t until 2022 that the company finally acquired its own permanent performance space in a nice looking apartment in central Belgrade. Our Son was created specifically for this space, and its intimacy is further amplified by the fact that it is performed in an apartment complete with a kitchen where soup can be served. Lazic says the setting is important because it puts the audience on the same level as the characters. “You’re all in the same living room together.”
Last year, Heart Fact decided to tour the show more extensively in Serbia, taking it to “places where people don’t normally get to see this kind of performance,” says Lazic. With funding from the Swedish Institute, they traveled to Lazarevac, south of Belgrade, where they had a tangible impact on the audience. Usually when there is a Q&A after a show, only a few people stay, but in Lazarevac, “a lot of people wanted to stay and talk and compare the show to events in their own lives,” he said. says.
This is the 50th time the performance has been held, which shows how popular it is. It is also performed in Kosovo. Heart Fact is one of the few Serbian theater companies that regularly tours its productions in Kosovo, and Our Son was the first Serbian play to be performed in the Kosovo city of Gilan after the war. At the International Dublin Gay Theater Festival. And at the Fast Forward Festival in Dresden, a jury of German teenagers selected it for an award. But the 300-seat theater was nearly full, making it Pirro’s largest audience to date. At the end, many of the young people in the school group stayed for a Q&A session and spoke enthusiastically.
Varagic feels this openness to dialogue is essential. “Here in Serbia, this topic is still taboo. It’s not something people talk about. I think this play opens up a space for that,” she says. “I hope the audience leaves with a question: That they need time to think about these things. This is how we lead the way to the next level of change.”
