The upstart

Instead of a word from the dramaturg: 
"Only the spirit of a small town knows the true small town, and only in it and for it does this kind of "worldly" world exist: in the reality of a small town there is no small town, just as there is no world in the world. The world is the vacillation of the spirit between a small town and the world, between the absolutely rational and the absolutely irrational which, in their absoluteness and "trueness", ideally separated, exist only in this spirit. If there is no escape from this vacillation, if to seek its resolution would be to return to the spirit of a small town as the spirit of salvation, and if, on the other hand, the ideal giving up the dream of salvation would mean giving up the movement, the spirit itself, falling into the world without hope of return, where being saved can mean only one thing: to be saved from oneself, to be dead, and where we exist only in the unsaved state, between two temptations; if there is no end to this dream about the end, to this dream which is pure unreasonableness, but unreasonableness with which one lives, and which is, again, a reasonable unreasonableness, - there cannot, however, be an end to this need of the spirit to see itself and to question itself. The spirit of a small town, as the spirit of the final answer, the one that heads the world and that questions everything except itself (and so that it would not question itself), only here, with this self-questioning of the spirit about the spirit, this self-questioning that neither ignores history nor tries to turn it into a way of suppression by "historicizing" its permanent trials, it really calls itself into question. The spirit of objectification in everything, as the exteriorization of one's own content into the world, from the attitude of dealing with the world, by which it remains sheltered in the shadow and darkness of inarticulateness for itself, here passes into the attitude of dealing with itself, which is never-ending and which is therefore, the ultimate obligation and everlasting inspiration."

Radomir Konstantinović, “A Small-Town Philosophy”, Nolit, Belgrade 1981, p. 196

A word from the director 
"Sterija is my favourite Serbian classic author. I find him inspiring because of his critical attitude towards the philistines, conservatism and dangerous prejudices of his time, as well as because of his empathy for the characters who yearn for a more fulfilling and noble life than the one offered to them by their lethargic community. I am fascinated by the language in his plays and I believe that it is a great challenge for any theatre director at any point of time to stage his comedies that at the same time contain the potential for provoking laughter, but also for warning recognition".
"I find it exciting to try to look at Fema's foolishness and the reactions of those around her as a brave and frantic aspiration of a person to reach a more beautiful and better way of existence than the one imposed on her. It is also my desire to illuminate the reaction of the society, which tries tooth and nail to stand in the way of this, as an aggressive, united reaction of the oppressive small-town spirit. The dark spirit of a small town is, unfortunately, a constant in our region and that is why Sterija is always relevant".
“I want our staging of “The Upstart” to correspond with the current feeling of reality and to be based on the sensibility of the present moment. I want the play to ponder about the possibility of changing aggression in communication and action that is deeply rooted by upbringing and heritage, both among those who are the pillars of everything that is primitive backward and intolerant in the provincial environment, and among those who, out of desperation, strive for a superficially understood sublime existence. I don't want a naively ironic Biedermeieresque enlightening play about our past, but a tragicomic look at the continuity of the provincial spirit in Serbia.”
Excerpts from the interview that director Iva Milošević gave to "Pozorišne novine" in April 2024. She was interviewed by Mikojan Bezbradica.