Messrs. Glembay: A Drama in Three Acts From the Life of One Agramer Patrician Family (Croatian: Gospoda Glembajevi. Drama u tri čina iz života jedne agramerske patricijske obitelji)[a] is a play by the Croatian author Miroslav Krleža.

Messrs. Glembay
A poster for the play at the Maribor Slovene National Theatre, Slovenia (24 October 1933)
AuthorMiroslav Krleža
Original titleGospoda Glembajevi. Drama u tri čina iz života jedne agramerske patricijske obitelji
LanguageCroatian
GenreDrama
PublisherDHK
Publication date
1929
Publication placeYugoslavia
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)

The play is divided into three acts, dealing with the events and the rift within the Glembay family. Messrs. Glembay is the first of three plays in the Glembay cycle which includes the dramas In Agony and Leda. The drama is commonly performed in the standard repertoire of major theaters across Croatia, and it is considered a classic of Croatian literature.[1]

The play was adapted into a 1988 feature film The Glembays, directed by Antun Vrdoljak, and starring Mustafa Nadarević as Leone Glembay and Ena Begović as Baroness Castelli-Glembay.[2]

An English translation of Gospoda Glembajevi (The Glembays) is available in Harbors Rich in Ships: Selected Revolutionary Writings by Željko Cipriš.[3]

Setting

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The play is set in Zagreb, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the summer of 1913. The events of the play unfold in Ignjat Glembay's home on the night of a feast celebrating the anniversary of the Glembay Ltd., between the hours of one and five in the morning.

Plot

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Characters

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The play by the Ljubljana Drama Theatre in 1946
  • Naci (Ignjat, Jacques) Glembay, a banker, owner of company Glembay Ltd., first secret adviser (69 years old)
  • Baroness Charlotte Castelli–Glembay, Ignjat's second legitimate wife (45 years old)
  • Dr. Phil. Leone Glembay, Ignjat's son from his first wife née Basilides–Danielli (38 years old)
  • Sister Angelika Glembay, a nun of the Dominican Order, widow from Glembay's son Ivan, née Baroness Zygtmuntowicz Beatrix (29 years old)
  • Titus Andronicus Fabriczy-Glembay, Glembay's cousin and a bishop emeritus (69 years old)
  • Dr. Iuris Puba Fabriczy-Glembay, a lawyer and the law adviser of company Glembay Ltd.; he is also his[who?] son (28 years old)
  • Paul Altmann, M.D., a physician (51 years old)
  • Dr. Theol. et Phil. Alojzije Silberbrandt, adviser of baroness's son and her confessor (39 years old)
  • Oliver Glembay, son of Baroness Castelli and banker Glembay (17 years old)
  • Ulanski Oberleutanant Von Ballocsanszky, an army lieutenant (24 years old)

Notes

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  1. ^ The adjective Agramer (Croatian: agramerski) refers to Agram, an archaic name for Zagreb

References

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  1. ^ "Gospoda Glembajevi". hnk.hr (in Croatian). Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  2. ^ "Glembajevi". hrfilm.hr (in Croatian). Croatian Film Association.
  3. ^ "Harbors Rich in Ships: The Selected Revolutionary Writings of Miroslav Krleža, Radical Luminary of Modern World Literature". monthlyreview.org. 2017.
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