Francis

Original title Ο Φτωχούλης του Θεού (God's Pauper)
Première 2. februar 2022, Mestno gledališče Ptuj
The first Slovenian performance.

Running time 3 hours. One intermission. 

Director Jernej Lorenci
Translator Jaroslav Novak
Text adaptation Jernej Lorenci, Matic Starina
Dramaturg Matic Starina
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Assistant set designer Nina Rojc
Composer Branko Rožman
Choreographer Kaja Lorenci
Assistant director Brina Klampfer
Language consultant Simon Šerbinek

Cast
Tamara Avguštin
Janez Škof
 

Francis of Assisi is a great religious, mythological, historical and artistic figure whose saintly aureole remains unsurpassed. He has become a symbol and, over the centuries, has transcended geography and has even gone beyond Christianity and turned into a countlessly depicted, even mythicised, superman with near-divine attributes. Yet, behind the figure of the great Francis of Assisi, there is a mere man who viewed the world and himself in a new way and began to live accordingly. He saw beyond the material, beyond ambition, beyond greed and lust. He suffered because he struggled with himself, but mostly, he was aware that every human being is unique and inimitable. As one of the early "ecologists", he also claimed that we are inextricably linked to each other and connected to nature. And this very human element is the crucial point of our performance about a man who, as philosopher and Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton states, "did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ". Francis did not want power and authority, but power and authority were abused in his name. He did not want to change the world, but he offered a way of changing oneself and one’s attitude towards others. He proclaimed a new madness – love.