Jernej Lorenci, Dino Pešut and creative team

The Pohorje Battalion

Ljubljana City Theatre, Ptuj City Theatre

Schedule

13.06.2024, Thursday / 20:00 / Fran Žižek Hall /

Première: 26 September 2023, Ptuj City Theatre

Running time 3 hours. One intermission. 

Director Jernej Lorenci 

Authors of the text Dino Pešut, Jernej Lorenci and creative team

Dramaturg Dino Pešut 
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Belinda Radulovič 
Composer Branko Rožman 
Movement consultantGregor Luštek 
Assistant director and assistant dramaturg Žiga Hren 
Language consultant Maja Cerar
Translator Sašo Puljarevič
Expert consultant Mateja Ratej
Lighting designer Radomir Stamenkovič 
Sound designer Danijel Vogrinec 


Cast
Mojca Funkl
Mirjam Korbar
Nina Rakovec
Lara Wolf,
as guest
Branko Jordan
Primož Pirnat
Matej Puc
Lotos Vincenc Šparovec
Gaber K. Trseglav
Gašper Lovrec,
as guest
Jure Rajšp, as guest

Shortly before noon on 8 January 1943, around 2,000 members of the occupying army surrounded the battalion camp at Osankarica. In a fierce battle – the last one – that lasted two and a half hours, 69 men were killed and the last one was taken wounded as a hostage and executed by the occupiers. Director Lorenci: "It's not really about the Pohorje Battalion at all. It's about an extreme experience in extreme circumstances: fear, hunger, cold, stench, corpses, severed limbs, rotting bodies, thirst; no kitchen, no toilet, no bed, no TV, no internet, no phone, no yoghurt, no gluten-free burger. There is nothing that I (we) take for granted. Everyday, non-negotiable. And yet I (we) judge. We judge all the time. Even if we have not had extreme experiences in extreme circumstances. So how does that give me (us) the right to judge? Is it perhaps necessary that I (we) at least try to imagine such experiences and such circumstances? Or to stop judging left, right and centre? Is it perhaps time for me (us) to stop talking?"

Director

Jernej Lorenci is one of the most renowned Slovenian theatre directors. He has received many national and international awards. So far, he has directed seven productions at the Ljubljana City Theatre: the first one was Murder in the Cathedral in 1997, while the last one was an original project based on the motifs by A. P. Chekhov’s play The Man Who Lived in a Shell in 2020. His most successful production at the Ljubljana City Theatre is The Storm that won nine awards at the Maribor Theatre Festival in 2012, along with Best Director’s Award and the festival’s Grand Prize, and a year later, Best Director’s Award at Bitef, the Belgrade International Theatre Festival. In 2014, Jernej Lorenci received the Prešeren Fund Award, also for directing The Storm. His award-winning co-production of The Illiad (Ljubljana City Theatre, SNT Drama Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana), which he directed in 2015, impressed the reviewers and audiences across Europe. 
 

Producer

The Ljubljana City Theatre has been founded by the City of Ljubljana in 1949 as the second dramatic theatre in Ljubljana. Today, with an ensemble of 35 actors, 12 opening nights per season and over 100 people employed, the Ljubljana City Theatre is the second largest Slovenian theatre. 

www.mgl.si
info@mgl.si

The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani
The Pohorje Battalion <em>Photo: Peter Giodani</em>
Photo: Peter Giodani