Devised theatre
Crises
In co-production with Bitef (Belgrade) and Zadruga Domino (Zagreb)
NOVA POŠTA (MASKA and Mladinsko Theater)
Schedule
Based on books Less in More by Jason Hickel and The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Première 30. september 2022, Bitef
The first Slovenian performance
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes. No intermission.
Director Žiga Divjak
Dramaturg Goran Injac
Set designer Igor Vasiljev
Costume designer Tina Pavlović
Composer and Sound designer Blaž Gracar
Lighting designer David Orešič
Narration recording and postproduction Silvo Zupančič
Translation of working material into Slovenian Tina Malič
Language consultant for Slovenian Mateja Dermelj
Language consultant for English Nataša Hirci
Producer Tina Dobnik
Co-producers Bitef (RS), Udruga Domino (HR)
The co-production is a part of the European co-operation project ACT – Art, Climate, Transition that is aimed at connecting art and activism with ecology and just transition.
Cast
Sara Dirnbek
Iztok Drabik Jug
Klemen Kovačič
Draga Potočnjak
Katarina Stegnar
Vito Weis
Gregor Zorc
Narrator Blaž Šef
In life, we are constantly facing different crises – be it personal, professional, social, political, refugee, health, existential, etc. Behind them lurks maybe the biggest one in the history of humankind: the environmental. But in spite of its magnitude, we are losing energy to solve other, ever new crises, trying to just restore the current situation … and forgetting that a crisis can be an exceptional time when seemingly impossible ideas become possible. The key question is: Which ideas? Those that would ensure more security, protection, health and well-being to everyone, or those meant to make the already unimaginably rich even richer? In Crises, Žiga Divjak and his team tackle all these questions and explore the human capacity for collaboration and the need to re-discover natural world not as a source but as our kin.
Žiga Divjak entered the Slovenian cultural domain (still as a student) with the series of events and performances entitled Right Before the Revolution (2013–2015) which brought him the Academy Prešeren Award and with which he toured to Germany and Croatia. Even after his studies, he remained loyal to his socially engaged position in his work, which has so far led him to direct at the Mladinsko, Maska Institute, Prešeren Theatre Kranj, Cankarjev dom, SNT Drama Ljubljana and Ljubljana City Theatre. His sensitive way of approaching social questions brought him a Borštnik Award for direction for The Man Who Watched the World (Mladinsko) in 2017, while the project 6 (Maska nad Mladinsko – The New Post Office programme), which he directed, won the Borštnik Grand Prix for the best production. The same goes for The Game (also The New Post Office), which in 2021 received six more awards (for direction, acting, young actress, dramaturgy, set design, music and sound design).
The Mladinsko Theatre was established in 1955 as the first professional theatre for children and youth in Slovenia. In our projects today, we are dealing with the symptoms of the society, showing them through the appropriate performative procedures. For this reason, public space, to us, becomes an equal performance space.
mladinsko.com, info@mladinsko-gl.si
Maska is a nonprofit organization that deals with contemporary art and theory, research, experimental performing practices, interdisciplinary art and critical theory. Its contents and events often provide a direct and sharp reflection of the cultural and political space.
maska.si, info@maska.si
The New Post Office is a place of dialogue, meetings and confrontations, a place for thinking wider social events and responses to them. Within its programme, there are discussions, presentations and round tables, as well as workshops, thematic or genre focused cycles or festivals. It provides the venue for new pieces of devised theatre.
Founded in 1967, BITEF (Belgrade International Theatre Festival) has continually followed and supported the latest theatre trends, becoming thus one of the biggest and the most important European festivals.
festival.bitef.rs, bitef@bitef.rs
Since its founding in 2003, the Domino Association has been systematically working on strengthening and accepting diversity through its numerous artistic, activist, educational and advocacy programs and projects. It supports creative questioning of social norms and cooperates with many domestic and international organizations.
thisisadominoproject.org, udrugadomino@gmail.com
