St. DEMETRIUS DAY

Premiere: 09.02.2018
Small Stage of the Madlenianum

The play St. Demetrius Day has for its theme the two characters, the Serbian Patriarch, Gavrilo Dožić and the Serbian Bishop, Saint Nikolaj Velimirović and first of all their last meeting on St. Demetrius Day in 1946 in Germany.

In the play St. Demetrius Day, the Serbian Patriarch, Gavrilo Dožić, a released prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp in Germany and the bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, an emigrant, talk about an uncertain destiny of the people and Orthodoxy in the homeland threatened by communist terror. Their dialogue runs - paradoxically, but historically true - in the villa of Wilhelm Kraut, a German, former concentration camp cook who now serves them with Serbian dishes and even manages to bake a Saint Day cake. One of the most exciting spots in St. Demetrius Day play is Wilhelm Kraut's decision to be baptized on that day and to become an Orthodox, inspired by people like the Patriarch Gavrilo and the Bishop Nikolaj. The church dignitaries remain firmly committed to the essence of the Saint Sava tradition and ethics, but the Patriarch Dožić does not give up on his intention to return to his homeland and share a historical destiny with his people and the Bishop Nikolaj continues his emigrant life to the end of his earthly life.

The Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic, who has, due to his spiritual grandeur, been proclaimed a saint, is a person deserving to be aquatinted better through his numerous works that he has left in the form of books and St. Demetrius Day play offers us the opportunity to find out some less familiar biographical data of this great man.

The play based on the historical facts is directed by the author of the text, Bratislav Petković and the audience will be able to see three great actors on the stage: Nebojša Ljubišić, Laka Nikolić and Bratislav Petkovic. The author of the scenography is Vladimir Ćirić and of the costumes Tijana Sićević.

St. Demetrius Day play will be performed on two stages, on the Small Stage of Madlenianum and on the stage of the Modern Garage Theater within the Car Museum.