Safet Plakalo

Safet Plakalo (born March 4 1950) is arguably the biggest living Bosnian playwright and one of the few South Slavic writers of poetic dramatic orientation. His unique dramaturgical expression integrates the precise poetic form of a sonnet deeply into the dramatic form.

Having written his first play, Vrh (The Peak), at a tender age of 26, he still holds the honour of being the youngest playwright in the history of Bosnian and Herzegovinian theatre whose play was staged by a professional theatre. The success of Vrh had secured him his first commission to write a play about the anti-fascist insurgence in Romania in 1941. Though one of his best plays, Iza šutnje (Beyond silence) attempted to demistify Slaviša Vajner Čiča, a partizan leader at the heart of the play, displeasing political censors. As a result, the play was announced and then taken off the repertoires of four out of five leading Bosnian theatres in a short space of time.

Founder of Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR), Plakalo was also the spiritus movens behind the famous 1969 Poetic Marathon, is a former journalist of Oslobodjenje, Večernje novine, and Sarajevo "202", and a respected theatre critic.

He lives and works in Sarajevo, where he is still at the helm of SARTR.

Plays

Vrh (The Peak)
Iza šutnje (Beyond Silence)
Nit (In vino veritas) (The Thread)
Koncert za klavir i svjetlost (Concert for Piano and Light)
Preparirano proljeće (The Stuffed Springtime)
Balada o Modrinji (A Ballad about Modrinja)
Phoenix je sagorio uzalud (Phoenix has burnt in vain)
Kulin IV (Kulin the Fourth)
Balada o ex-šampionu (A Ballad about an Ex-champion)
Lutkino bespuće (A Doll's Wasteland)
Sklonište (The Shelter)
Memoari Mine Hauzen (The Memoirs of Mina Houzen)
Hazreti Fatima (Fatima Az-Sahra)
Soba od vizije (Chambre des Visions) (A Room of Vision)
Smrt i čežnja Silvije Plat (Désir et mort de Sylvia Plath) (The Death and Desire of Sylvia Plath)