Report by the Selector of the 45th Maribor Theatre Festival

If I had to describe in one word Slovenian theatre production, perhaps the most appropriate description would be “solid.” This means that it can be said to be of fairly high quality but also described as resting on firm professional (and institutional) foundations, which indeed allow this level of quality (and the numerous performances). Add to this the indisputable diversity of genre, content, aesthetics and, last but not least, production across the Slovenian theatre landscape, and it seems that there are plenty of reasons for optimism. And yet, there is also a dark side to this encouraging conclusion and it calls for certain reservations when establishing that Slovenian theatre is in quite a good shape: while firm foundations leave little room for low quality performances on Slovenian stages, in some cases they nurture routine creativity and complacent staging, if not a lack of reflection on the repertoire. Moreover, large volume production, perhaps bordering on hyper-production, carries with it the danger of superficiality and potentially aggravates the already existing difficulties with post-production. In circumstances of mass production, audacity, the exploration instinct, and (even) commitment (to an idea) become dulled and give way to the familiar, safe and tested.

When selecting the performances for this year’s festival, I had to overcome two difficulties. One was the exceptionally large number of performances (more than 110 performances or “performing events” which over the period of one year I identified as potential candidates for the national theatre festival), and the other, indeed a less serious one, was the partial lack of clear, objective selection criteria. The rule book of the Maribor Theatre Festival, for example, states that “all forms of theatre production” can participate in the festival, “with the exception of purely puppet, dancing and musical productions.” However, in practice, and particularly when dealing with modern, hybrid genres, interpretation of this rule can often be an unrewarding task. Even more difficult to determine is what makes a performance a truly “Slovenian performance.” Is it the producer or the share of co-producers in the project? Is it the language of the performance (if any language is used at all), or the director, or other collaborators, or the share of Slovenian participants in the project? In principle, when deciding on borderline cases characteristic of modern, globalized theatre production, I adopted an open approach that enabled me to include the largest possible number of performances for consideration.

I began to compile a list of candidate performances for this year’s festival sometime around mid-May last year, meaning around the time of the deadline for submitting performances for the Maribor Theatre Festival. I also wished to include those performances from last season that could not be taken into account last year because of their late premiere date.  By the first week of June, my list comprised slightly more than 110 productions; I subsequently excluded some of these from closer consideration. Theatre producers submitted precisely 100 performances, several of which were not included in my initial list (for example, performances from previous seasons, dance performances and the like). In the end I had to choose from a list of approximately 110 performances.

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My selection for the competition section includes the greatest permissible number of performances, i.e. twelve. I decided on the maximum number because of the truly extensive production, but also because I firmly believe that all the selected works deserve inclusion in all respects (The Cenci, Amado mio, A Respectable Wedding, Private Life, Manifest K., Closer, Damned Be the Traitor to His Homeland!, When I Was Dead, The Frogs, Conversations, Monologues, Platonov and Persona). In addition to the self-evident criterion – the quality of the performance – when making a selection I was in favour primarily of those performances that demonstrated an active relationship to their content, a creative attitude towards the theatre medium and an obvious reflection on the time and space in which they were born.

In shaping the accompanying program, I considered several possible concepts, but their common denominator was my conviction that this part of the festival should not be – as does sometimes happen – a kind of “minor league” or a consolation prize for those producers whose projects failed to qualify for the competition section. In the end I decided on guidelines similar to those that I followed when selecting the competing performances: I chose four performances that in my judgment are exciting and of good quality, but whose inclusion in the competition section could have been disputable for various reasons. These are: Love Dolls, Škrip Orchestra, the Via Nova set of performances and the monodrama, The Night at the Edge of the Forest. I am convinced that each of these is a valuable contribution to the mosaic of the previous year’s cream of the crop in Slovenian theatre production.

Gregor Butala,

Selector of the 45^th Maribor Theatre Festival