Abstract
Dolečki examines the case of Ad Hoc Cabaret, a traveling theatre collective established in Croatia in 1991, following the outbreak of war. Performing sequences of various humorous skits to audiences deprived of regular cultural production in the wartime context, such as soldiers and army personnel, but also refugees and war casualties based on the front lines, Ad Hoc Cabaret offered a repertoire aiming to provide their specific public with temporary escape from the horrors of the wartime reality. Dolečki raises the question of how, by the use of a specific type of humor, this theatre endeavor not only provided their audiences with a break from the severe wartime circumstances but also promoted certain ideological patterns and constructions in line with those promoted from the positions of state power.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works cited
Balfour, Michael. “Performing War: ‘Military Theatre’ and the Possibilities of Resistance.” Performance Paradigm 3 (2007). https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/19421/45238_1.pdf?sequence=1. Accessed October 11, 2017.
———. Theatre and War: Performance in Extremis, 1933–1945. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2001.
Behrmann, Sven. Politische Satire im deutschen und französischen Rundfunk. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2002.
Belamy, Alex J. The Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream? Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Bergson, Henri. Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. New York: Scholar’s Choice, 2015.
Billig, Michael. Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. London: Sage, 2012.
Bürgschwentner, Joachim, Matthias Egger, and Gunda Barth-Scalmani, eds. Other Fronts, Other Wars? First World War Studies on the Eve of the Centennial. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2014.
Collins, L. J. Theatre at War, 1914–18. London: Macmillan Press, 1998.
Davies, Christie. Ethnic Humor Around the World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
Dinesh, Nandita. Theatre and War: Notes from the Field. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2016.
Ferguson, Mark A., and Thomas E. Ford. “Disparagement Humor: A Theoretical and Empirical Review of Psychoanalytic, Superiority, and Social Identity Theories.” Humor–International Journal of Humor Research 21, no. 3 (2008).
Jelavich, Peter. Berlin Cabaret. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Kazecki, Jakub. Laughter in the Trenches: Humour and Front Experience in German First World War Narratives. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
Kolstø, Pål. Media Discourse and the Yugoslav Conflicts: Representations of Self and Other. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009.
Krivanec, Eva. “Staging War. Theatre 1914–1918.” Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/staging_war_theatre_1914-1918/2014-12-18. Accessed February 2, 2018.
Lubkemann, Stephen C. Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Mrduljaš, Igor. Ad Hoc Cabaret: hrvatsko ratno glumište 1991/92. Zagreb: AGM, 1995.
Nikčević, Sanja. “Komedija u domovinskom ratu ili borba humorom za tjelesno i duševno zdravlje.” Dani hvarskog kazališta 40, no. 1 (April 2014).
———. “Odjeci Domovinskog rata u hrvatskom kazalištu i drami.” Hrvatska revija 3 (2015).
Ptičer, Valentina, and Dubravko Slović. “Zapovjednik satnije ‘Hrvatski umjetnici’: I Dragutin Tadijanović je htio u rat!” Večernji list, May 16, 2014. https://www.vecernji.hr/premium/zapovjednik-satnije-hrvatski-umjetnici-i-dragutin-tadijanovic-je-htio-u-rat-936483. Accessed February 2, 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dolečki, J. (2018). Theatre on the Front Lines: Ad Hoc Cabaret in Croatia, 1991–1992. In: Dolečki, J., Halilbašić, S., Hulfeld, S. (eds) Theatre in the Context of the Yugoslav Wars. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98893-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98893-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98892-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98893-1
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)