Last night, at half past seven, a member of the Serbian National Theatre, Serbian actor and writer, the most outstanding theatrical character artist in the Slavic South—Laza Telečki—passed away at the age of 33. Tuberculosis, which has become a common ailment among the youth, and in his case, almost a family curse—having already claimed two of his brothers and a sister—has taken his life.
His final appearance on stage was as Nona Purilo in Ni brigeta. The theatre was his heart and soul, his pantheon, his church. For ten years, he served as a priest in that church—only ten brief years. Back when the Society for the Serbian National Theatre was still in its infancy, when Srpski Dnevnik was the sole advocate preaching the essential need for a national theatre for the Serbian people on both sides of the river, even then, Laza Telečki, inspired by the impassioned words of the newspaper's writers, driven by an artistic desire that smoldered in his chest, made the bold decision to abandon the wooden benches of the Vukovar courtroom and throw himself into the uncertain yet equally irresistible world of the theatrical and wandering life.
The apostles, too, were wanderers. And Laza was an apostle—an apostle of art, an apostle of spirituality, beauty, and refined taste, an apostle of patriotism. The great obstacles he encountered—like any who embark on such an apostolic journey—shook his already sensitive nature to its core. He has now gone to account for his time on stage, stepped away from the worldly theatre, and removed his earthly mask.
—Has he not died beautifully? Almost as if he truly has!
—Plaudite, amici!—
This obituary was written by Laza Kostić and published in Zastava, issue no. 50, in Novi Sad, on Sunday, April 29 / May 11, 1873.
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