MEDIATHEK

THE ILIAD is a stage construction of Homer`s epic. Rather than trying to create a visual masterpiece, the director and the artistic team chose to work with a relatively small number of actors (12), with an emphasis on the spoken word, narration, rhythm of the dactylic hexameter, and sound imagery, accompanying the narrative. The performance is in two parts: in the first, the adaptation closely follows the original Homer`s narrative, slowly unravelling the three worlds of the Iliad: the Greeks, the Trojans and the Gods. In the second part, the performance pictures the great slaughterhouse that is the Trojan war: all battles become one, all victims become a universal victim. Performance The Iliad is a coproduction of three major Slovenian cultural institutions: two largest Slovenian theatres and a culture/congress centre. The cast is a selection of the best Slovenian actors from the Slovenian National Theatre and the Ljubljana City Theatre. The performance won awards at the 2015 BITEF Festival in Belgrade, at the largest Slovenian Theatre Festival Borštnikovo srečanje 2015 in Maribor and at the 23. edition of the International Theatre Festival KONTAKT 2016 in Torun, Poland. The Iliad was further presented at festivals in Varna, Sibiu, Zagreb, Minsk, Budapest, Ochrid and Tivat.

// CREDITS //

DIRECTION: Jernej Lorenci
TRANSLATION: Anton Sovre
STAGE ADAPTATION: Jernej Lorenci, Eva Mahkovic, Matic Starina
DRAMATURGY: Eva Mahkovic, Matic Starina
SET DESIGN: Branko Hojnik
COSTUMES: Belinda Radulović
MUSIC: Branko Rožman
LIGHT DESIGN: Pascal Mérat
CHOREOGRAPHER AND ASSISTENT TO THE DIRECTOR: Gregor Luštek

CAST:
ACHILLES Jure Henigman
THETIS Nina Ivanišin
PARIS Aljaž Jovanović
HEPHAISTOS Gregor Luštek
HECTOR Marko MandićBRISEIS Zvezdana Novaković
HERA Jette Ostan Vejrup
HELEN Mia Skrbinac
ZEUS Matej Puc
PATROCLUS Blaž Setnikar
PRIAM Janez Škof
AGAMEMNON Primož Pirnat

Premiere January 24th, 2015

// AUTHOR & ENSAMBLE //

JERNEJ LORENCI (1973) is a theatre director and senior lecturer at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. For his directions he received numerous awards: Grand Prix for Best Performance and Best Direction Award at the Borštnikovo srečanje Festival, Šeligo Award for Best Performance at the Week of Slovenian Drama, Politika Award for Best Direction at BITEF 2013, Best Direction Award at the International Theatre Festival Zlatni lav. He has worked in all Slovenian theatre institutions, at ZKM, in HNK Zagreb and other theatres abroad. He is among the recipients of the 2017 Premio Europa Theatre Prize. It is the third time Jernej Lorenci´s production is presented at the Pilsen IF THEATRE. In 2004 it was his direction of Sarah Cane´s Cleansed (SNG Drama Ljubljana) and in 2014 The Conference of Birds (Din Attar – Carrière – Brook, NG Maribor).

SLOVENIAN NATIONAL THEATRE DRAMA LJUBLANA (SNG Drama Ljubljana) is the oldest theatre institution in the country, founded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. It is the central Slovenian repertory theatre house and one of the culturally most influential institutions in the region, with a permanent 45-member ensemble. It has won numerous Slovenian and international awards. In the last two decades, DRAMA has presented excellent productions in more than thirty countries around the world.

LJUBLJANA CITY THEATRE (MESTNO GLEDALIŠČE LJUBLJANSKO) has been founded by the City of Ljubljana in 1949 as the second dramatic theatre in Ljubljana. Today, with an ensemble of 39 actors, 10 to 12 opening nights per season and over 100 people employed, the Ljubljana City Theatre is the second largest Slovenian theatre. The repertoire politics are oriented toward a lively, polemical, contemporary dialogue with the present. The programme is a combination of classical and contemporary plays, directed by the currently most prominent Slovenian and some foreign directors.

CANKARJEV DOM (CD) is Slovenia`s largest culture and congress centre. Since CD is mostly a cultural centre, over two thirds of the available halls are annually reserved for culture and the arts. Cankarjev dom is visited by half a million people each year and over 1000 cultural and artistic performances and 200 congress events are hosted annually.

// PRESS //

Iliad is without doubt a big performance, at least as big as it is careful in its adherence to theatre (im) pulse and its power, while its skill to use it – for a current (political) statement in the right moment, for example – makes it even bigger. It spans from Greece as the cradle of European civilization and culture, all the way to its recent collapse and death.

– Nika Leskovšek, Dnevnik

Lorenci… He has taken all that Balkan has kept from the ancient tradition: folk epics, stories about our ancestors’ characters and deeds told in hexameters on bagpipes... That is why his Iliad has turned into a sort of human cabaret in which it is danced, sang and died to the fantastic music by Branko Rožman.

– Katja Perat, Mladina

The Iliad is innovative and magnificent, as much classical as inspired by European theatre avantgarde, with subtle hints of the contemporary history of the Balkans. The performance begins as a concert version of an opera, the actors (in formal wear) sitting on plain chairs, narrating the bloody history of the Iliad into microphones. The mics are not there just to enhance the sound of words: the whole performance is built from music and the rhythm of the hexameter, similar to heart beat or the sound of pounding horse hooves. The narrated intro slowly evolves into a total theatre experience with a universal relevance bound to be recognized by all audiences.

– Margareta Sörenson, International Association of Theatre Critics

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