British Embassy in Zagreb Celebrates 400 Years of Death and 90 Years of Life

The 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and 500 Years Since the Death of Shakespeare were celebrated at a decidely Shaskespearian gathering at the official residence of the British Ambassador to Croatia on June 7, 2016, an event attended by TCN. 

A collection of the great and the good of Croatian society, coupled with a ramshackle collection of British nationals residents of Croatia (including this correspondent) on the official resident of British Ambassador to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Queen.  

A special shuttle bus service was put in operation from the centre, and there was no doubting the end destination. There is a corner of every foreign field…  

The annual gathering, taking part in bright sunshine this year, is a chance to celebrate aspects of British culture, a little networking, and sample some old favourites back home, some as chicken curry and fish and chips. The queue of the invited guests to pay their welcoming respects to Ambassador Ian Cliff was long.  

And while the invitation may have been to celebrate the Queen’s birthday, there was also another commemoration. He may have died in 1616, but for many Shakespeare is the greatest ever Briton, and 2016 sees a campaign called ‘Shakespeare Lives’, exactly 500 years after his passing. There was delightful period music and singing as a backdrop to the event, as well as two Shakespeare monologues, one in English, the other in Croatian.  

The Bard was everywhere.  

And as everyone stood for the two national anthems before the Ambassador’s speech, a unique (and extremely beautiful) rendition of both anthems, a la Shakespeare. Judge for yourself in the video above. 

Ambassador Cliff talked of the importance of 2016, with the 400 years of Shakespeare and the 90th birthday of Her Majesty. There was a third significant 2016 event he could not speak about – I was beginning to think he meant Euro 2016 and the 50 years since England won a significant trophy in football. He was, of course, referring to the upcoming Brexit vote, a subject on which he is not allowed to have an official opinion on.  

Given the spectacular disintegration of the government, it was perhaps not surprising that there were not so many big political names at the event this year, although one minister did appear, and was guest of honour, an honour which included putting a knife to the Bard – Minister of Public Administration Dubravka Jurlina Alibegovic.

Other politicians were in attendance, however, and it was nice to catch up with Milorad Pupovac MP, from the Independent Demoratic Serb Party. The smaller parties are likely to play an important role in the expected forthcoming elections or coalition reshuffles. TCN will publish an interview with Pupovac next week. 

There was food.  

And there was nature. The wonderful view from the terrace made it hard to believe one was in a capital city.

A fine evening, and although neither Shakespeare of Queen Elizabeth were in attendance, I am sure they would have approved of the party in their honour.  

 

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