WHENTHEORY ANDCRITICISM MERELY OBSERVE PRACTICEOVERTAKING THEM ON THERIGHT, AND MARVEL TomaÏ Topori‰iã in the backstage of the Mladinsko Theatre waiting for the performance The Lesson. photo Îiga Koritnik EXTRACTS FROM AN Sophocles Oedipus Rex (1998) directed by Tomi JaneÏiã stage design Vlado G. Repnik costume design Elena Fajt in the photo (foreground) Olga Kacjan, Sebastijan Cavazza photo Goran Bertok programme for the performance Oedipus Rex (1998) designed by Vlado G. Repnik topori‰iâ Interview with TomaÏ Topori‰iã TomaÏ Topori‰iã has been a synonym for the Mladinsko Theatre since the beginning of the 1990s. Born in 1962, with a master’s degree [and a doctorate, earned in 2006, add eds.] in Comparative Literature and bachelor’s in English, author of many essays and treatises on drama and theatre, literary reviews, translations, a series of dramaturgic contributions (to the performances by Vito Taufer, Eduard Miler, Meta Hoãevar, MatjaÏ Berger, Tomi JaneÏiã, etc.) as well as the winner of an award for achievements in dramaturgy. He started his career as a literary reviewer for Radio Slovenia and edited the magazines Tribuna and Mladina (culture section), writes literary reviews for the Ljubljana daily newspapers Dnevnik and Delo. Seen from a distance, Topori‰iã belongs to a generation which was there to profoundly experience the slipping of time through the fingers. The atmosphere of the 1980s and the highlighted civil initiative – so far, the last thrust when culture and art in the Slovene social context were considered to have a relevant role of a co-builder of the state and nation (finally leading to independence as a kind of a climax) – was followed by an anticlimax, the subsiding of most of the consciousness achieved. The time and the state of mind were quickly diluted, followed by the attentuation of the external power of the theatre medium. During this process, Topori‰iã entered the Mladinsko Theatre: in 1992 he was hired as a dramaturg, in 1995 he assumed the function of its artistic director and held it until 2003 – in that same year he obtained his Master’s Degree at the Faculty of Arts. Since then, he has been the house dramaturg again and in 2004 he published the book Between Seduction and Suspicion: The Relation between Text and Performance in Contemporary Slovene Theatre. In the interview he is a reflective interlocutor, avoiding popularized issues, and in the answers he sometimes moves the emphasis posed in the question. 229 You Never See Me Where I See You (1997) directed by MatjaÏ Berger stage design Ana Kuãan costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo (foreground) Draga Potoãnjak, Robert Prebil photo Goran Bertok Veno Taufer Odysseus & Son or The World and Home (1990) directed by Vito Taufer stage design Dalibor Laginja costume design Barbara Stupica in the photo Draga Potoãnjak, Milena Grm, Mina Jeraj, Pavle Ravnohrib, Marinka ·tern photo Radomir Sara∂en photo Tone Stojko ❏ How relevant do you consider Hans-Thies Lehmann’s concept of postdramatic theatre, what weight do you ascribe to it? Is it a new theatrological bible, flogging of a dead horse, or a mixture of both? He seems to be treating a type of theatre towards the principles and strategies of which the Mladinsko has in fact gravitated (and considered them) for some time – do you therefore consider Lehmann’s theoretic investment a pioneer one, primarily in the sense of paving the phenomenon that nobody had been able to put down in words before him? After all, the references to the history of performing arts he mentions cannot be casually put under the roof of the construct … Supremat (2002) directed by Dragan Îivadinov stage design and costume design Dunja Zupanãiã in the photo Dario Varga photo Miha Fras Lewis Carroll – Vito Taufer Alice in Wonderland (1994) directed by Vito Taufer stage design Rae Smith costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo Niko Gor‰iã, Mojca Partljiã photo Radomir Sara∂en ■ Regardless of the significance or turning-point value ascribed to Lehmann’s concept of postdramatic theatre, one cannot avoid the fact that the Slovene theatre has also moved within his model of postdramatic theatre. Although Lehmann, being unacquainted with its history – which is understandable as this is the culture of a small nation which was not able to raise the awareness of its specificity in the European area because its critical establishment was not internationally resounding – only refers to it in certain cases. […] The contemporary Slovene theatre of the last decades of the 20th century can therefore, probably very justifiably, be interpreted through several theoretical concepts. That is, Jacques Derrida’s and Philip Auslander’s concepts of detheologization of the stage, Bonnie Marranca and her concept of the theatre of images and Richard Schechner’s anthropological theory of performance, and simultaneously to Lehmann’s concept of postdramatic, often overlapping with Jean-François Lyotard’s concept of the theatre of energy. All these concepts arise from the crisis of dramatic author and representation, and are closely connected with the crises of the relation between the text and its enactment. This is the sense in which Lehmann should be read, and through topori‰iâ Henrik Ibsen – Meta Hoãevar Family Album (1994) directed by / stage and costume design Meta Hoãevar in the photo Janez Hoãevar, Polona Juh 231 topori‰iâ 232 him and the abovementioned authors (as well as Mi‰ko ·uvakoviç), the Slovene theatre of the last decades of the 20th century. The Slovene theatre inherited the changes brought by the second half of the 20th century which are also discussed by Lehmann in his book. Although the theoreticians reflecting on it are not sufficiently aware of legacy. The reason for this oversight is that in Slovenia there are almost no monographic or historical studies on theatre in the last thirty years, which leads to a situation highlighted by the leading French theatre theoretician Patrice Pavis referring to the French theatre: the theory (in so far as it exists at all) does not manage to keep up with the practice overtaking it on the right. Critics and theoreticians merely observe this overtaking and marvel, and sometimes even show an aggressive or belittling attitude towards practice. Thus, a number of the key performances of the new theatre have not been canonized, from Missa in a minor by Ljubi‰a Ristiç, the performances I Am Not I or Alice in Wonderland by Vito Taufer, to Baptism under Triglav by Dragan Îivadinov, and to a great extent even Scheherezade by TomaÏ Pandur, and even more obviously his performances from the Maribor period. Unfortunately, there is simply no national consensus for the canonization of authors like Ristiç, Îivadinov, Taufer and Pandur as classics of Slovene contemporary theatre, like Peter Stein and Pina Bausch were canonized in Germany, and Bob Wilson, for instance, in Europe and globally. ❏ Is it possible to draw a parallel between the concepts of the postdramatic theatre and the “new theatre” as conceived by the Zagreb Eurokaz festival under the expression of “iconoclasm in theatre” at the end of the 1980s and then brought to life in the 1990s? Let us remember that the then turbulent Slovene theatre arena with its epicentre in the Mladinsko (with the performances by Vito Taufer participating the most regularly or Red Pilot of Dragan Îivadinov) provided Eurokaz with stage material on which it extensively grounded its aesthetics and profile. ■ Eurokaz was above all an important checkpoint for the new kinds of poetics of the Slovene theatre, and also to a great extent those of the Mladinsko. Here, one should not overlook certain conceptual emphases 5 Towards the mid 1980s, when it was still possible to describe Ljubljana as the “last stop of the Moscow metro”, the cultural panorama of the Slovene capital unexpectedly started to change. With the flourishing of art galleries, musical initiatives and theatre performances, the town turned from an idle centre of provincial culture into a laboratory of a completely new lifestyle. One of the driving forces of this rebirth was the Mladinsko Theatre, the establishment that was the first to abandon the mentality of a national theatre and started to search for ways outside the classic repertoire and established names, thus giving open directors with unconventional ideas the chance to realize their projects experimenting with new spaces, dramaturgic interweavings and using advanced technologies, projects that would have otherwise been impossible to carry out. An independent presentation of the Mladinsko with three performances, accompanied by opportunities for direct contact, video documentation and clownery scenes, is the most appropriate way to give this extremely active theatre hub the credit it also deserves for the international recognizability of the new Slovenia. Roberto Canziani in the catalogue announcing the Mittelfest festival, 2001 of its artistic leader and director Gordana Vnuk, which should be interpreted as her theoretical view of the phenomena of contemporary stage arts, important as a form setting the place of the new theatre from the area of former Yugoslavia rather than as a widely established theoretical concept. Her terminology is interesting when linked with the eclectic poststructuralist theories we spoke of earlier, and with the specific features of the art of the second world, including Slovenia, also encompassing the Mladinsko and Slovene theatre, i.e., contemporary stage arts of the third generation of the 1990s. ❏ Is it therefore possible to say that in the Slovene theatre, postdramatic phenomena are present to a greater extent than recognized today; as air that we have breathed for quite a while? Astrid Lindgren – Andrej Rozman Douk‰tumf Pippi (1998) directed by Vito Taufer stage design Andrej Erjavec costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo Janez ·kof, Mojca Partljiã, Janja Majzelj photo Îiga Koritnik Brochure accompanying the performance Pippi (1998) graphic design Samo Lapajne ■ The transformation process in the contemporary Slovene theatre taking place in the last decades of the 20th century can be interpreted as the paving of the way to a progressive deviation from the conventional dramaturgy toward a theatre based on image-movement-music-texttechnology, which took place simultaneously and often as a reaction to the decay of the socialism story, as a concurrent liberation from literary theatre and ideology (socialism). This transition was accurately described by Mi‰ko ·uvakoviç as a “transition from the poetics of political art to the art in the era of culture. This is a transition from post-Althusserian Lacanian treatises […] and simulation (art) of the ideology of the totalitarian systems in late socialism to ÎiÏek’s recent understanding of ideology, used in interpreting and artistically restructuring the culture of late capitalism and post-socialism”. Strong accents both in the field of postdramatic theatre and in the theatre of images first emerged the most clearly in the works of three directors (born around 1960) who appeared after 1982: Vito Taufer, Dragan Îivadinov and TomaÏ Pandur. They all found their point of departure in the path tread by the great magician of political theatre of the beginning of the decade, Ljubi‰a Ristiç, primarily his turning-point performance from 1980, Missa in a minor. Whilst throughout his work, Ristiç’s variant of postdramatic theatre of images was an engaged one, Vito Taufer built his theatre of images in a critical artistic dialogue with Ristiç’s double coding of socialism. By doing so, he mapped late socialism by means of deconstructing the artistic tactics of the modernist theatre tradition, from the hyperrealism of Williams’ Class Enemy (1982), via Filipãiã’s ludic Altamira (1984), to an Artaud-inspired theatre of images in the performances I Am Not I (1983) and Alice in Wonderland (1986). Within the retro-garde movement of NSK, the decentralization of the universe of the dramatic theatre and an extremely powerful invasion of the visual into the field of performing arts were, simultaneously with Taufer, carried out by Dragan Îivadinov. […] Similarly to Baptism, based on the Wagnerian structure of Gesamtkunstwerk, but within the field that ·uvakoviç called the “theatre of eclectic postmodernism”, TomaÏ Pandur came close to the theatre of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Three Sisters (2001) directed by / stage design Tomi JaneÏiã costume design by Elena Fajt in the photo: Sebastijan Cavazza, Robert Prebil, Sandi Pavlin photo Dejan Habicht Anton Pavloviã âehov Tri sestre (2001) reÏija in scenografija Tomi JaneÏiã kostumografija Elena Fajt na sliki Sebastijan Cavazza, Robert Prebil, Sandi Pavlin foto Dejan Habicht topori‰iâ Bertolt Brecht Galileo Galilei (1996) directed by MatjaÏ Berger the scenery of the Main Reading Room of the National and University Library designed by the architect JoÏe Pleãnik costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo Nata‰a Barbara Graãner, Janez ·kof photo Tone Stojko 234 Barbara Novakoviã The Girl and the Doublebass (1998) direction and costume design by Barbara Novakoviã stage design Aljo‰a Kolenc in the photo Sanja Ne‰koviç Per‰in, Neda R. Bric, Draga Potoãnjak photo Egon Ka‰e Programme for the performance The Girl and the Doublebass (1998) Designed by Aljo‰a Kolenc I tempi passati (1999) directed by stage design Vlado G. Repnik costume design Marina ·tembergar in the photo Ivan Godniã, Maru‰a Oblak photo Goran Bertok images, first with Scheherezade (1988), the East-West opera by Ivo Svetina, then with the great spectacles Faust (1990), Hamlet (1990), Carmen (1992), La divina commedia (1993) and Russian Mission (1994). With Pandur, the deviation from the “conventional dramaturgy to a theatre based on image-movement-musictext-technology” (Marranca) did not cause stepping out of the theatre field into, for instance, a Wilsonian or Îivadinovian autonomy and syncretism of different theatre elements, but a simulacrum of the classicist baroque theatre and its involvement in the aristocratic world, which is constantly subject to the author’s mythology, the “myth as a dream of reality” (Foretiç). A spectacle for today, arising from the Wagnerian opera of the 19th century. At the same time, this variant of the postdramatic theatre of images did not also mean a return to the dramatic theatre that would revive the “theological” primacy of the text, but a theatre in which there is a prevalence of images – visual and oral. Their incidence is extreme. Lehmann describes it as an “overheating or flood of images”. The author’s selectiveness is intentionally minimized, taking from a wide range of artistic media and genres, also often from popular culture. Pandur’s theatre is thus a “theatre for the post-literary period” (Kostelanetz). In the first half of the nineties, a specific, personalized form of the theatre of images, which, like Wilson’s, was based on image, developed within the field of the so-called repertory theatre, e.g., in the works by Meta Hoãevar, especially with the staging of Jovanoviç’s The Puzzle of Courage (1994) and even more obviously with Family Album (1994), the author’s paraphrase of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. This is the way the post-Brecht theatre, called postdramatic by Lehmann, was built. The case of Meta Hoãevar is not a lonely one, with postdramatic elements found in the performances of directors like Eduard Miler, Bojan Jablanovec, Martin Ku‰ej, Janez Pipan. With the third generation of directors, the same period also brought the ultimate removal of the border between theatre and visual arts, most clearly within the hybrid performing arts, close to the new understanding of performance as an interdisciplinary field, an “art of spectacle” (·uvanoviç), arising from the happenings of the OHO group, Pupilija Ferkeverk, the performance of Pekarna and the initial stage of Glej. With each of the new authors, the generation of new forms of postdramatic theatre and theatre of images took place in a specific way. […] ❏ You became artistic director of the Mladinsko Theatre in 1995. Memorable achievements included among others, a series of Taufer’s performances, Silence Silence Silence, Pika, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the establishment of Tomi JaneÏiã with the staging of Chekhov and Oedipus Rex, Eduard Miler’s Hinkemann, performances by MatjaÏ Pograjc, e.g., Who’s Afraid of Tennessee Williams? and The House of Bernarda Alba, MatjaÏ Berger’s projects (Galileo Galilei, You Never See Me Where I See You, Die Traumdeutung, 1900, The Name of the Rose from Umberto Eco), the farewell rituals and Supremat by Dragan Îivadinov, and within the series Open Mladinsko, Juliette Justine by Sebastijan Horvat and The Girl and the Doublebass by Barbara Novakoviã. Your period also saw the beginning of regular guest performances around South America and elsewhere, to these successes and ovations Slovenia responded with scepticism. How to explain this? ■ At least since the eighties, more precisely since Missa in a minor, the Mladinsko has been an international theatre entity. The powerful signatures of Jovanoviç, Ristiç, Pipan, Taufer, Pandur and Îivadinov, joined with a Brookian commitment to research and Artaudian accents into a non-theological theatre, announced and enabled the aesthetic boom of the nineties. The Mladinsko thus flourished as a space for the hegemony of heterogeneity, remaining the centre of theatre research in Slovenia. The accents of Martin Ku‰ej, MatjaÏ Pograjc, Emil Hrvatin, Eduard Miler, Tomi JaneÏiã, MatjaÏ Berger, Barbara Novakoviã and Sebastijan Horvat, together with Taufer’s researches into an extremely wide field of theatre functions and projects by Îivadinov, led to the greatest aesthetical variety in the history of this theatre. Unfortunatley, the critical establishment in Slovenia did not know how – or was not able – to analyse and properly contextualize these achievements because of the limited mechanisms available and also because of the ideological fights 5Dear Friends, 1. In the eighties and primarily in the nineties, the Mladinsko Theatre developed into a modern type of a theatre hub dedicated to the research of the latest trends within the field of contemporary performing arts. Because of its extreme openness to various phenomena of stage languages, its function in the Slovene theatre and wider cultural sphere in the eighties and nineties became one which resulted in productions of extraordinary quality, increasingly present in Slovenia and recognized in international expert circles. As an interesting organizational and artistic phenomenon in the Slovene theatre, the Mladinsko Theatre was the first to introduce new forms of production and coproduction, its poetics or, in fact, kinds of poetics, significantly influenced the development of the Slovene theatre and the theatre in the area of the former Yugoslavia, and it also made a considerable contribution to the establishment of the Slovene theatre in Europe and around the world. The Mladinsko not being a classical repertory theatre, its performances, not given within a season subscription series, have covered the entire Slovene cultural space, as well as the theatre spaces of the neighbouring countries, the rest of Europe, and Latin America. It has also attracted collaborators from all around Slovenia and other relevant European theatre areas. Thus, it has become more and more entangled in the entire Slovene space and in different European theatre and cultural spheres. 2. In the beginning of the nineties, the Mladinsko further strengthened its position in the Slovene and European theatre space and set the foundations for its further transformation into the first theatre hub for contemporary performing arts of a special national significance. It opened up even more for any initiative of generationally and poetically different theatre artists, and started to intentionally establish new forms of production. The basic programme concept of the Mladinsko (as formed through the practices of the last ten years and in interaction with various Slovene and European artists) can be summarized into the following points: 1. The Mladinsko Theatre wants to remain an open space for various productions and coproductions both nationally and abroad. With its ensemble, programme direction, and technical and organizational base, it wants to establish a theatre as a studio of and for theatre artists and a meeting point for dialectic sessions between established and unknown, knowledge and research, classical and contemporary, new theatre practices and their reflection. 2. The Mladinsko must provide the Slovene theatre and cultural sphere with the chance to create: • the unusual (performances we have not seen yet); • a special contact and interaction with the audience; • meetings of artists from different fields; • new forms of cooperation between artists working in Slovenia and abroad; • new generations of theatre artists training alongside established artists; • meetings of master practitioners and newcoming students. 3. As such, the Mladinsko is open for the whole of Slovenia. It finds its programme interest in the entanglement both in the phenomenon of the Ljubljana city and that of the Slovene cultural sphere with its specific features. It intends to cooperate in various forms with any interesting entities within Slovenia and outside it, foster interaction between them and the theatre hubs in Europe and elsewhere. 4. With its programme and conceptual bases open in this way, it contributes to the establishment of the Slovene dramatic, theatre art of all profiles and all related arts interacting with theatre all around Slovenia and in other countries. It declares itself a modern Slovene theatre hub developing the typicality of contemporary arts in Slovenia and encouraging cooperation between Slovene and foreign artists and production centres and festivals. 3. The season that is just about to begin establishes two fields within such a concept: 1. The repertoire field of four new projects by four Slovene directors of various kinds of theatre or stage poetics, and of reruns from the previous seasons, recorded in the Slovene and European moment of contemporaneity on stage and generally present both in domestic and foreign theatres, thus also outwardly reflecting the state of the contemporary Slovene and European art. 2. The field called Open Mladinsko, offering a varied programme: independent projects by different theatre and other artists, presentations of domestic and foreign stage events of various kinds, workshops, colloquiums and symposiums, organized in cooperation with domestic and foreign partners. Thus, Open Mladinsko should on the one hand become a platform for the unproven, unknown, borderline, and on the other hand use the presentation of domestic and foreign groups to provide information on contemporary trends in the area of performing arts, thus, alongside other festival and presentation projects in Slovenia, provide the necessary reference framework for the Slovene theatre and cultural public. The new season, like the previous one, will of course be turbulent. It is like that in a theatre – one never knows on which side of the hall door to find the reality that is more binding upon it. We believe that the projects under preparation and the projects presented during the season are a sufficient challenge for the domestic audience. And this is the audience for whom the projects are intended, even more so than for the numerous foreign spectators watching our performances every year. So, see you in our theatre! Editorial of TomaÏ Topori‰iã in the programme brochure for the Mladinsko season 1996/1997 Marquis de Sade – Sebastijan Horvat and PrimoÏ Vitez Juliette Justine (2000) directed by Sebastijan Horvat stage design Petra Veber costume design Jasna Bajlo in the photo Nata‰a Matja‰ec, Petra Govc, Olga Kacjan photo Marcandrea The Visages of Sand (2003) project by Ivan Peternelj stage design Ema Kugler costume design Elena Fajt in the photo Damjana âerne photo Igor Delorenzo Omahen The Bellringer (1997) project by Ivan Peternelj stage design Tanja LaÏetiç costume design Ema Kugler in the photo Ivan Peternelj photo Dejan Habicht Veno Taufer Odysseus & Son or The World and Home (1990) directed by Vito Taufer stage design Dalibor Laginja costume design Barbara Stupica in the photo Olga Kacjan, Milena Grm photo Tone Stojko William Shakespeare – Andrej Rozman Roza A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) direction, stage and costume design by Vito Taufer costumes made of corn leaves by Stanislava Vauda in the photo Ravil Sultanov, Nata‰a Sultanova photo Goran Bertok Anton Pavlovich Chekhov The Seagull (1999) directed by Tomi JaneÏiã stage design Tomi JaneÏiã and Elena Fajt costume design Elena Fajt in the photo (foreground) Romana ·alehar (background) Sebastijan Cavazza, Uro‰ Maãek photo Goran Bertok Neda R. Bric, Damjana âerne, Îeljko Hrs, Branko Jordan, Nata‰a Matja‰ec, Marko Mlaãnik, Rafael Vonãina, Barbara Îefran Who’s Afraid of Tennessee Williams? (1999) direction, stage and costume design by MatjaÏ Pograjc in the photo Damjana âerne, recording BlaÏ ·vent photo Îiga Koritnik topori‰iâ on the left about “independent” and “dependent” production. This situation made it extremely important to introduce these phenomena in the international theatre and festival space, a space able to interpret this theatre imagination machine free of any burdens, but consistently and critically enough. Now that we have become settled in the post-post-socialist period of the so-called transition of Slovenia, it is already possible to say from a historical distance that the Mladinsko as a phenomenon of contemporary theatre would not have survived without this support from abroad. That the positive feedback in Europe and both Americas was a necessity for continuation. This appreciation abroad led to a duality: in Slovenia, the Mladinsko was relatively marginalized, while outside Slovenia it represented Slovene art, culture and even the country. ❏ What is the actual context of South American theatre – isn’t the Slovene theatre a priori bound to succeed there? ■ The social context of this theatre or rather theatres varies greatly from one country to another. From Mexico to Brazil or Chile. The context of Sao Paolo, for instance, is extremely cosmopolitan, comparable to that of New York rather than to a European one. It is similar in Ciudad de Mexico. Nowhere is the Slovene theatre a priori bound to succeed, of course. The least so in the countries where they do not know us, where they do not even know where Slovenia is and what cultural tradition it belongs to. However, it is true that with successful guest performances and, in the opinion of the reviewers there, turning-point performances, e.g., Scheherezade, Odysseus & Son, Roberto Zucco, Silence Silence Silence, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Mladinsko has won the status of one of the most interesting creative nuclei of the European theatre. And is presented in these large festivals as such. Often in the way that what the audience and the critics more or less only know of Slovenia is that it is a country of the new theatre. […] Interview by PrimoÏ Jesenko Published in Dialogi, 9–10, Maribor, 2004 237 Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (2002) directed by MatjaÏ Berger stage design Sabina Colnar costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo Ivan Peternelj, Romana ·alehar photo Igor Delorenzo Omahen Umberto Eco Ime roÏe (2002) reÏija MatjaÏ Berger scenografija Sabina Colnar kostumografija Alan Hranitelj na sliki Ivan Peternelj, Romana ·alehar, Sandi Pavlin, Marko Mlaãnik foto Igor Delorenzo Omahen Umberto Eco Ime roÏe (2002) reÏija MatjaÏ Berger scenografija Sabina Colnar kostumografija Alan Hranitelj na sliki Ivan Peternelj, Romana ·alehar foto Igor Delorenzo Omahen Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (2002) directed by MatjaÏ Berger stage design Sabina Colnar costume design Alan Hranitelj in the photo Ivan Peternelj, Romana ·alehar, Sandi Pavlin, Marko Mlaãnik photo Igor Delorenzo Omahen topori‰iâ 240 5 Distinctly Signed by the Authors The Mladinsko Theatre again remained loyal to its fundamental orientation in the last season: on two stages, which are in fact of equal importance, last month joined by the setting in the Grand Concert Hall of the Postojna Cave, it displayed a varied spectrum of performances with distinct directors’ signatures. The final picture of the season was again marked by many guest performances: with its standard repertoire of theatre sensations from the previous seasons, the Mladinsko visited many festivals at home and abroad, and among others, also performed in Trieste, Nice, Nancy, SaintEtienne and Bogotá. The performances given by the Mladinsko are practically impossible to mark with any common denominator in terms of their contents, as they are extremely varied: there are The Seagull of A.P. Chekhov, wrapped in the nets of the Strasberg method, as conceived by the director Tomi JaneÏiã, the expressive staging of Toller’s Hinkemann, directed by Eduard Miler, the enactment of Lorca’s poetic drama The House of Bernarda Alba, in which director MatjaÏ Pograjc envisaged the house as a dialogue between the happening on the stage and acted and documentary recordings, and in the end, the spectacle by the director MatjaÏ Berger in the Grand Concert Hall of the Postojna Cave, a research into the life and work of Sigmund Freud entitled Die Traumdeutung, 1900. Within the programme of Open Mladinsko, the director Sebastijan Horvat opened the last season with the performance Juliette Justine, with its motifs linking it to the novel with the same title by Marquis de Sade, but otherwise committed to the now totally recognizable – within the director’s works – presentation of theatre as a modular mechanism; the season was continued and concluded by the performance for children Mary Poppins by Maru‰a Geymayer-Oblak (co-produced by Ljubljana Puppet Theatre and the Municipality of Ljubljana, and consequently presented on the puppet theatre’s larger stage). Petra Pogorevc, Dnevnik, 25 July 2000 Catalogue of the Ibero-American Theatre Festival of Bogotá (2000) 5 A Theatre that Erases Centuries It has been over ten years since the famous theatre performance Scheherezade by the writer Ivo Svetina and director TomaÏ Pandur was given at the international theatre festival in the Mexican capital Ciudad de Mexico and instantly enraptured the audience including critics as well as organizers of other festivals. In 1990 the Mexican reviewers declared Scheherezade the best foreign performance given in Mexico that year. As soon as the following year, Slovenia received this award again. Once again they presented it to TomaÏ Pandur, earning it for his direction of Faust, a production of Drama SNG Maribor. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Slovene theatres began their expedition around the festivals of Latin America, and now new theatres are visiting them, and the interest in the shows is such that quite a few invitations have to be rejected due to other obligations. The enthusiastic responses by the audience are followed by new recognitions by the critics, the latest one again coming from Asociación Mexico. The Mexican Association of Theatre Critics (A Mexicana de Críticos de Teatro) once again declared a Slovene piece the best foreign performance given last year in their country. Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by the Mladinsko Theatre and directed by Vito Taufer, thus became the third Slovene performance boasting this prestigious award. The Mladinsko Theatre received it twice, Scheherezade was also its performance. Last year, the theatre presented A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Arte 01 festival in Ciudad de Mexico and at the Cervantino festival in Guanajuato. The guest performances were made possible by the Slovene Ministry of Culture and Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d., which shows that the economy of Slovenia has also begun to see in theatre a chance to promote itself. Mexican critics did not spare their praise, among others putting down in the Uno más uno newspaper: “Four centuries have passed since A Midsummer Night’s Dream was staged for the first time. Slovenes erased this distance. Their staging is entirely contemporary. Shakespeare lives.” One should bear in mind that the association of Mexican critics is one of the oldest associations of critics in the country, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Its members considered theatre performances from several dozen European, Canadian, Latin American, North American and other states, and in the end unanimously opted for the Slovene production. In Latin America, the trust in the performances given by the Mladinsko Theatre is such that the organizers of this year’s festival in the Columbian capital Bogotá put Taufer’s new performance Ubu on the programme, before he had even started to direct it. For the director Fanny Mikey, Taufer’s name and the name of the theatre were a sufficient guarantee. And not just for her, but also for the Slovene Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d., which also supported this performance in Columbia. The joyful news about another Mexican recognition came exactly at the time when the performance in Bogotá was being planned. The theatre is thus not only erasing borders of centuries between the original and the contemporary theatre stagings, but also between culture and our economy. Marko Jen‰terle, Rodna gruda, Argentina, No. 3, 2002 The team giving the performance A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Ibero-American Theatre Festival of Bogotá (2000), Columbia photo Dare Kragelj Anton Pavlovich Chekhov The Seagull (1999) directed by Tomi JaneÏiã stage design Tomi JaneÏiã and Elena Fajt costume design Elena Fajt in the photo Marinka ·tern, Sandi Pavlin photo Goran Bertok Anton Pavloviã âehov Utva (1999) reÏija Tomi JaneÏiã scenografija Tomi JaneÏiã in Elena Fajt kostumografija Elena Fajt na sliki Marinka ·tern, Sandi Pavlin foto Goran Bertok Ernst Toller Hinkemann (1999) directed by Eduard Miler stage design Marko Japelj costume design Leo Kula‰ in the photo Ivan Rupnik, Ivan Peternelj photo Îiga Koritnik Ernst Toller Hinkemann (1999) reÏija Eduard Miler scenografija Marko Japelj kostumografija Leo Kula‰ na sliki Ivan Rupnik, Ivan Peternelj foto Îiga Koritnik 242 Lewis Carroll – Vito Taufer Alice in Wonderland (1994 staging) directed by Vito Taufer stage design Rae Smith costume design Barbara Porenta in the photo Mojca Partljiã photo Radomir Sara∂en