What sets Kovacevic apart is his belief that theatre should be a form of collective exorcism. He forces his characters—and by extension, his audience—to confront the darkest chapters of recent Balkan history: the Second World War, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the wars of the 1990s. He does not offer easy answers or political slogans. Instead, he offers people : flawed, loud, loving, and fiercely alive.
A recurring motif is the "gathering" — a wedding, a funeral, a birthday, or a simple family dinner that inevitably explodes into a confrontation of buried secrets, political allegiances, and unhealed wounds. The audience laughs one moment and is stunned into silence the next.
His plays are famously demanding for actors. They require a range from slapstick comedy to Shakespearean tragedy, often within the same scene. Consequently, performing in a Kovacevic play is considered a rite of passage for Serbian actors.