In November 2012 the performance of a play by the young Montenegrin playwright Jovana Bojović will be held in London. Her play entitled Peacekeeping Mission won the competition organised by the Theater Epicenter in Zagreb, which is the theatrical centre for central and south-eastern Europe, together with the Company of Angels Theatre from London. The play will be published as a part of a collection under the name of Južnoslovenska / Južnoslavenska Čitanka (South Slav Reader) to mark the occasion.  

“The aim behind the edition of theatre readers is to not only encourage playwrights who write for young audiences but to also look into the possibility of working together with authors from different parts of the world. This would lead to a play being performed in some of the Theater Epicenter member countries, which is extremely important for a young playwright,” said Jovana Bojović in an interview with Southeast Europe: People and Culture.  Bojović is currently a student of dramaturgy at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje.  

“Besides the fact that it has helped promote my own work, this competition has also been an opportunity to acquaint people in the region and further away with what is happening nowadays in the world of playwriting in Montenegro,” said Bojović. Playwrights from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Montenegro took part in the competition and each of these countries also delegated a jury member whose job was to select the winner. The Montenegrin member of the jury was theatre and film director Nikola Vukčević.  

Aside from London, the collection will also be promoted in selected central and eastern European countries. Jovana Bojović believes that competitions such as these encourage young playwrights in Montenegro to keep producing new material and thus contribute to the cultural life of the country.

“There have always been and will continue to be different ways of promoting different professions, including writing. I believe that competitions and similar forms of promotion are the best way to open doors for young authors to express themselves, as well as have their work reviewed,” said Bojović.

Peacekeeping Mission is about a young man from Montenegro who made up his mind to allow others to plan his own life. At a crucial moment, when he is wondering about the meaning of life, he enlists to join a mission in Afghanistan in order to play his small role in a global war.  

“Essentially, this play is about the absurdity that people nowadays have to face and it is perceived through a prism of a ‘problem’ that the Montenegrin society is currently facing,” said Bojović.  

Bojović uses her writing to talk about philosophical, social, and other issues that trouble her at a particular moment. “Of course, writing plays is not just a means of expressing oneself; it requires feedback from the reader and from the audiences. It is an action awaiting reaction and it aims to strike a chord either with an individual or with society as a whole that will raise questions. And this is essentially what I try to achieve through my work,” said the young playwright.

It is important to Bojović to see Peacekeeping Mission performed on some of the “local stages” in the southeast Europe region aside from Theater Epicenter. The jury has forwarded the play to theatres throughout Montenegro.  

“If for no other reason, the simple fact that it has won an international competition would encourage the performance of this play here, which would make me extremely glad as this way it could relate to audiences in Montenegro. More than that, even though it was written for the theatre, the play could easily be transposed for television,” said Bojović.