Christopher Columbus at the Dubrovnik Festival

Extract

Among the productions at the 1973 Dubrovnik Festival, the one which elicited the greatest interest from the tourists, including vacationing governmental leaders, was actually an implicit deprecation of the exploitation of and by tourists. The performances of Christopher Columbus were presented this past summer on board an oversized replica of the Santa Maria, as it sailed with crew and audience out of the Dubrovnik harbor, continued through the night in search of the new world, and came into port to discover a new land exactly like the old one from which they had departed two hours earlier—a waterfront lined with restaurants, souvenir stands, and tour boats.