Have You Seen ‘The Last Macedonian'?
By: Victor Bivell
The speech for the launch of "The Last
Macedonian" by Dushan Ristevski. Sydney, 19 October 2019.
Good evening to everyone. Thank you for the
opportunity to help launch the latest play by Dushan Ristevski. Let's start at
the very beginning, the title ‘Posledniot Makedonets", "The Last
Macedonian".
It's an interesting concept, ‘the last Macedonian'. Macedonians
have been thinking and talking about it for a while, but something tells me our
enemies have been thinking about it for a lot longer. Well over a hundred years
perhaps and probably more. It's possible there have been people imagining a
Macedonia without Macedonians for a long time, and it is a measure of their
success that now Macedonians are also thinking about it.
So is this play really about the last Macedonian? Or
even ‘the very last Macedonian'? Well, if you haven't seen the play I'm not going
to tell you. You have to read it, or see it, or watch the DVD.
What I will tell is that it's a very good play. For a
start, there are plenty of interesting characters. There is Philip and his wife
Szezhana, their children Makedon and Makedonka, and Philip's mother Solunka.
They live in Bitola, and yes, the names are also allegorical.