THEATRE IN BELGRADE

Sam Boskey
We Will Not Be Bombed off the Stage.


BELGRADE - At the National Theater, the old adage that the show must go on is taken very seriously.


And so it has, despite almost daily bombing of the Yugoslav capital by NATO warplanes. What began as an expression of artistic freedom has become one of quiet yet determined defiance and national pride, as both the performers and their audiences refuse to give up the stage.

Unlike the daily briefings of government ministers, who use bellicose rhetoric to denounce NATO and extol the virtues of the Yugoslav nation, the defiance shown at the National Theater is more subtle and free of overt nationalism.

The theater has continued to put on plays, operas, and ballets written by those who hail from NATO countries. Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' was yesterday's main show.

''This is not about politics,'' said Nebojsa Bradic, the theater's general director. ''This about being true to our profession and to our audiences. We will not be bombed off the stage. The audience gives us strength. We give them some kind of medicine.''

The theater has made adjustments, however, the main one being that all shows are now matinees that finish before nightfall - when the bombs begin to fall. When NATO began its operation March 24, officials canceled the entire schedule. But within days, Bradic and his staff realized they desperately wanted to keep performing.

''We resumed our performances on March 27, a very symbolic day, because it is World Theater Day,'' Bradic said, sitting in his office overlooking Freedom Square. ''We put on Rossini's `Cinderella' at noon, and the people came.''

They have kept coming, day in and day out.

A few of the early performances were interrupted by air raid sirens. There are two bomb shelters in the theater, including its second stage, which is normally used for the plays of contemporary writers.

''Two or three times we did that, went into the shelter. But now the audience won't leave the house. It has been a joint decision by the artists and the audience to see through the performance, even if we hear the air raid sirens,'' said Bradic.

''We said that we were devoting our 50th performance to NATO because it was their 50th anniversary,'' said Bradic. ''It was done more in humor than anything else.''

THE END

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