Biography

Nina Plavanjac (1998) is a playwright and theatre director from Belgrade, author of premiered plays Just Voice, Castle in the Lake, Clouds, and Aquarium, which marked her directorial debut. She received the Sterija Award for her play A Name in the Ashes and the award for the best Bosnian-Herzegovinian play for Petar’s Doll, and was a finalist for the Sterija, Heartefact, and Aurora awards.

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“NAME IN THE ASHES”

A Name in the Ashes is a play about what happens to women when society decides they are inconvenient. It draws inspiration from the historical reality of women vanishing into asylums—often without diagnosis, trial, or return. The play follows women confined to a luxurious sanatorium where, under the pretense of healing, they are robbed of their identities and sold as merchandise. It is not only a story about victims and abusers, but about victims who become abusers—about how trauma and cruelty are reproduced and inherited, and how power corrupts even the broken. Structured in three parts—each marked by a shift in setting, language, and musical genre—the play reflects the way identity is fractured by systemic violence. Each of the three parts features a women’s chorus performing musical forms tied to female expression: ballads, cabarets, and laments. Though the women remain the same, their names and roles change with each part, reflecting how society rebrands them depending on their perceived worth—first as Beauties, then as Whores, and finally as Monstrosities. Writing this text was my way of confronting personal trauma, depression, and fear of institutional punishment, and I’ve since seen it create a deep sense of connection, healing, and solidarity in others. As misogyny and authoritarianism rise across Europe and the world, often hand in hand with renewed efforts to control women’s bodies and inner lives, this play insists on remembering the names that were taken.