The performance of The Drama about Mirjana and the People around Her by an
ensemble from the Yugoslav Dramatic Theatre from Belgrade, based on a text by the young Croatian author Ivor Martinić, aroused a great deal of interest and was showered with ovations and awards.

The Yugoslav Drama Theatre and one of its leading actresses Mirjana Karanović were awarded the Prix Marulić at the Marulić Days festival of Croatian drama in Split (26 April – 3 May 2011). This was the Yugoslav Drama Theatre’s first performance in Split for almost thirty years.

Mirjana Karanović won the award for her performance of the title role of Mirjana, and The Drama about Mirjana and the People around Her won the audience prize for the best play of the festival. The members of the audience were asked to give each show a mark ranging from 1 to 5, and the average mark that the Yugoslav Drama Theatre's show received was 4.79.

According to the jury, the best overall performance of this year's Marulić days festival was a project by the Croatian director Olja Lozica under the title of Reces i Ja (lit. Recess and Me - play on words: Recession), co-produced by Exit Theatre and the KUFER theatre company from Zagreb.

The play from Belgrade was the only foreign production at the festival but the media pointed out that it was based on a text by a Croatian author. People in Split were extremely interested to see this play and the performance was sold out.

The play centres on ordinary people and a mid-life crisis - Mirjana and her relationship with people who surround her every day. Her everyday life is riddled with all kinds of problems - her teenage daughter, ex-husband and the neighbour who confides in Mirjana that she will commit suicide in two years' time. It is a story of alienation, great expectations, and time that passes by too quickly.

When Mirjana Karanović, together with the rest of the ensemble from the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, walked onto the stage they were welcomed by a huge round of applause and the audience often interrupted the play by applauding. The end of the play saw the Croatian National Theatre in Split erupt with ovations and Mirjana Karanović was at the same time exhilarated and surprised by the way the audiences received the play.

A few days later, the same play was warmly welcomed by audiences in Rijeka, during the 18th Small Scene Theatre Festival, where Mirjana Karanović again won the prize for the best female role.

In an interview for Southeast Europe: People and Culture, the 27 year old Croatian author of the text of The Drama about Mirjana and the People around Her, Ivor Martinić said that the fact this production won the audience award in Split "was also a message from the thinking people of Split that all the taboos about the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are dead and buried."

When asked how the cooperation with the Yugoslav Drama Theatre came about, Martinić said that he had spent a long time looking for a theatre in Croatia that would put on his play, but that no one had shown any interest. He sent in his application to the contest organised by the Belgrade-based theatre and two months later they decided to produce it. The play opened in February 2010 and was directed by Iva Milošević. Soon after that, the play was performed in Ljubljana and Zagreb.

After that, it did not take long for Ivor Martinić, who wrote The Drama about Mirjana and the People around Her when he was only 23 years old, to become the favourite of the theatrical establishments in this part of the world.

Born in Split but living and working in Zagreb, Marinić says he was very pleased with the performances of his play in the different countries of former Yugoslavia, but pointed out that Mirjana Karanović, who was the first actress to portray Mirjana in his play had made the role her own.

"It was hard to believe she would portray the first Mirjana. Intuitively, it was a part written for her," says one of the youngest Croatian playwrights.

Martinić says that The Drama about Mirjana and the People around Her has slowly been opening doors for future work, but hopes for new co-productions tend to be unrealistic in these hard times of recession.

Marulić Days in Split is an international culture festival founded in 1991 and dedicated to the dramatic opus of Marko Marulić (1450 - 1524), a Croatian poet and a Christian humanist, who is believed to be the founding father of literature in Croatia.