Safet Plakalo

Who they were

Safet Plakalo was a Bosnian playwright and poet, theatre critic, journalist, and founder of the Sarajevo War Theatre. He was a prominent figure in Bosnian drama, known for his poetic and modernist theatrical works and his significant role in sustaining cultural life during the Siege of Sarajevo.

Path and career

Career Having written his first play, Vrh (The Peak), at the age of 26, Plakalo held the honour of being the youngest playwright in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina to have a play staged by a professional theatre. [ 1 ] The play, which premiered on 23 March 1977 at Kamerni Teatar 55 (Chambre Teatre 55), was directed by his high school friend and longtime collaborator, Dubravko Bibanović, with whom he had engaged in early artistic, activist and conceptual projects. Famously,

Death On the edge of the poster for his first wartime play, Sklonište , Safet Plakalo wrote: "All of this happened by chance. Yet chance is a human duty." [ 1 ] Reflecting on the role of art in the war, he later wrote a fitting epitaph for himself: "Art in all its forms, including theatre, is powerless before the forces of evil, but it is powerful in that it can stir within the human soul an emotional charge that steels a person’s resistance to evil." [ 2 ]

Why this date

Safet Plakalo appears on our March 19 calendar for 2015 as a death entry.