In 1970, in an interview at La Mama Theater in New York City, where his play Druga vrata levo (translated as Second Door Left, 1970) was having its American premiere, Aleksandar Popovic almost mechanically enumerated the targets of his rage: "Bureaucracy, ignorance, greed, sham, and enemies of freedom." As if weighing the formidable opposition, he quietly declared: "I plan to battle all my life" (Drama and Theater, VIII, no. 2, 1969-1970). A quarter century later Popovic continued his combat with elusive adversaries. Until his death in 1996 he was Belgrade's Poet of the Streets and a constant warrior, confronting vrazi (devils) within Serbian society. He is also indisputably the best playwright that Serbia has produced during the past fifty years.

His genius lies neither in constructing unusual situations nor in creating outstanding characterizations that leap like Falstaff from the stage and take their place among the gallery of immortal literary personae. Rather...