[2018] · [SPONA]

[Realists]

[Smiling through the ruins of our dreams]

by [Jelena Kajgo]

directed by Srđan Janićijević

Realists is a sharp, darkly funny punch to the gut of post-transition Balkan reality. It dissects consumer dreams, corporate obedience, and tabloid hysteria with biting wit and zero nostalgia. This isn’t a story about failure — it’s about survival at a cost. In a world that traded utopia for pragmatism, Realists asks the uncomfortable question: when did “being realistic” become the fastest way to betray your own life?

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[The Janićijević-Kajgo collaboration delivers a brutal takedown of the modern middle class, peeling back the illusion of “success” to expose raw anxiety. Far from escapist comedy, it’s a “comedy with a lump in your throat”—defensive laughter amid minimalist staging that underscores deep emotional emptiness. Mundane woes (debt, dead-end jobs, digital isolation) become an existential crisis, turning the play into a merciless mirror of a generation teetering on breakdown.]

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[An absurd comedy that is far too real to be merely funny.]

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[Janićijević isn't directing a drama; he is directing the collective nervous breakdown of a social class.]

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[A minimalism that screams!]