Lots of Potential, Little Space: The Case of Slovenian Theatre
Zala Dobovšek*
Abstract
This essay aims to provide a concise overview of Slovenian performance production in recent years. It highlights key theatrical trends that have shaped the Slovenian arts scene, including devised theatre, documentary theatre, feminist breakthroughs, and the dramatic contributions of younger generations. A central thesis of the essay is that while Slovenian theatre possesses significant creative and political potential, it consistently faces challenges related to limited production capacity, as well as spatial and financial constraints.
Keywords: Slovenian theatre, devised theatre, documentary theatre, dramatic texts, production conditions
When in 2016 the Slovene National Theatre Ljubljana, the central national institution in Slovenia, staged King Ubu[1] according to the principles of devised theatre, this event resonated on several levels in the wider cultural sphere. The so-called “revolution” was less about the methodological principle itself and more about where it was performed. This marked the first instance of devised theatre on the Grand Stage of a major national theatre. Regardless of the mixed reactions it elicited from both the professional community and the audience, it was undeniably viewed as a significant political statement and a contemporary shift within the institution’s repertoire.
The circumstances surrounding King Ubu, along with various other instances, illustrate a compelling intersection of perspectives concerning its classification as an “experiment.” This inquiry yields a dual response. Firstly, the production undeniably represents a radical reimagining of the canonical text. It was characterized by improvisational elements, political incorrectness, narrative actualization, and the incorporation of performative aspects—attributes that had not been previously witnessed with such intensity and principle on the Grand Stage of the SNT Drama Ljubljana. In this context, one could argue that the production is indeed experimental, particularly in relation to its established and traditional audience. Conversely, the production was supported by a substantial institutional framework and garnered significant media attention both prior to and following its premiere, factors that may render the notion of experimentation incongruous.
Theatre of the imagination has been a significant presence in Slovenia since at least the 1960s, often thriving in extra-institutional spaces as well as within some professional venues, such as the Slovenian Youth Theatre. This form of theatre frequently intersects with group, community, and research theatre. The remarkable move of the Central National Theatre, with its unusual form of staging King Ubu, opened a new tab for an alternative view of the politics of the national theatre and the local understanding of canonical dramatic works. If for some this event was at first seen as a key repertoire break, for others as a mere provocation, in reality its consequences or considerable impact only became apparent over time. Just a few seasons later, the Slovenian performance scene experienced a notable rise in adaptations of classical and canonical plays (or literary works in general). This trend was primarily carried forward by Jernej Lorenci, the director of The King Ubu, while several other directors from different generations also embraced dream theatre as their creative approach. Many of them adopted the idea of the autonomy of their own authorial view, which simultaneously offered the potential for at least three creative elements: a completely independent interpretation of a particular dramatic/literary work, the collective creation of a performance (with a loosened, but still existing hierarchy in the process), and the abandonment of the original writing of the dramatic text at the expense of actorly improvisations with the insertion of their own personal experiences or commentaries.
In terms of the thriving and questioning of both authorship and performance methodologies in contemporary times, this kind of trend has undoubtedly brought to the stage many new perspectives on some dramatic works. It has created new opportunities for acting, disrupted traditional dynamics within permanent ensembles, and has frequently (though not always) pushed the boundaries of perception, particularly for audiences, some of whom were likely experiencing these types of “experimental” approaches for the first time in certain theatrical settings.
The result was a persistent polarization of opinions: some firmly supported the idea of free creation, even at the cost of the original work, while others felt that the autonomy of playwrights was being undermined by an influx of design projects, often shielded under the label “based on motives.” It was during this period of an overabundance of “original projects” that Slovenia saw the flourishing of the so-called new dramatics, which introduced a wealth of new writings, authors, and innovative approaches to drama—and eventually to theatrical expression.
At first, it appears that the concurrent development of local drama and the dissemination of design principles is a positive, promising opportunity. However, it quickly becomes clear that these two parallel advancements are marred by a fundamental conflict and a serious misunderstanding. At the core lies a complex paradox.
In recent years, devised character productions have emerged as a reaction to the dusty practices and themes of historical playwriting, which a particular creative ensemble believes need to be refreshed, modernized, and revitalized. The theatre of imagination consistently seeks vibrancy across all dimensions—procedural, professional, contextual, and production-related. However, it appears to find this liveliness not through new dramatic texts, but rather through historical or previously tested works.
On the other hand, the last five years have seen an explosion of new dramatic texts in Slovenia, which, ironically, – also seek to broaden the spectrum of understanding of drama and theatre. These plays also experiment mostly with form and dramaturgy of structure, but above all they introduce extremely topical, socially critical and (auto)biographical components into their content. The presence of numerous dramatic texts holds little significance if the production aspect of the theatrical process doesn’t engage with them. This relationship is not straightforward. The affinity for the continuous inclusion of contemporary drama in Slovenian theatre must be shared by both the “client” (the theatre company) and the “performer” (the director and the creative ensemble).
In the past years, as an example of good practice, but unfortunately also as an exception, we can consider the 10-hour production of no title yet[2] as the project that in its concept met all the desired parameters of creation, both for the playwright and the creative team. However, it was an off-series project, as the process, which faced interruptions, extended over a period of up to fifteen months. The production conditions were nearly ideal, largely due to the collaboration between a highly accomplished director (Tomi Janežič) and a highly regarded playwright (Simona Semenič).The director told the Theatre Journal, among other things, that from the very beginning, when they started talking about the project, he had Simona Semenič in mind as part of the team and that a new dramatic text would be created in a package with their concept. He never expected her to sit in on rehearsals and take notes. To him, it felt more appropriate to create his own interpretation. They discussed the cues, and he filled her in on the various stages of the work, but she didn’t engage with the rehearsals. While Simone was busy writing, the actors were also immersed in their creative process, generating a wealth of material. However, there was little direct communication between them; as the director, he served as a bridge between their worlds. He found himself pondering how to listen to and trust the entire creative process
The additional permanent fear that clings to (young) playwrights is thus twofold: the feeling of being unable to compete with the “dream theatre” and, in the case of the actual realisation of their original text, the possibility of its (sometimes complete) devastation of the original form at the expense of “creative freedom.” It seems that these two poles cannot possibly meet in a full-blooded way and that this misunderstanding will obviously take time. Especially on the part of artistic directors, mentors, and directors who are not entirely clear how much they are actually following, i.e. reading new drama.
One of the problematic symptoms can be observed in the student semester productions at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television. Here, almost exclusively traditional and well-known plays are staged, while a multitude of new, innovative, contemporary, and ultimately relevant works are overlooked.The most reliable and coherent support for new (and most often young) playwriting is certainly the Third Programme of Radio Slovenia – the ARS programme, which, through the regular recording of radio plays, ensures the professional production and promotion of new plays to a wider audience than just the professional one.
There are several reasons for the remarkable growth of new dramatic texts in the Slovenian space at the present time. In 2010, the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (University of Ljubljana) began the transition to the Bologna system of education, establishing the subject of playwriting as a multi-year compulsory course. Continuous training in this field initially showed its positive effects, particularly in the context of the Young Playwright Award,[3] which attracted more and better plays each year. In recent years, some of the writings of the younger generation or student population have reached such a high level of quality that they have submitted their plays to the main Slavko Gruma Award for the best original play and have been selected as nominees on several occasions.
In 2017, the Vzkrik platform was established, which included year-long playwriting workshops and, finally, a festival and staging of the final texts for a few days, in the format of reading performances. Over the last four years, it has established itself as a rotating festival, touring as a stand-alone and independent festival to institutional theatres. Using the infrastructure of the theatre and in collaboration with the artistic staff, the Playwriting Festival has created a space and time for experimentation, trial and error. However, despite professional support, the Vzkrik platform was closed down in 2020, as the official institutions (the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Ljubljana) did not provide sufficient financial support to enable decent remuneration for the participants and thus allow their ideas to develop smoothly.
In addition to Vzkrik, other initiatives by institutional theatres have taken place in the last five years; the Slovenian National Drama Theatre Ljubljana has been running a year-long playwriting workshop called New Readings from 2017-2021, and the Ljubljana City Theatre has established a “playwright in residence” section in the 2019/20 season, which provides a selected playwright with the financial and production opportunity to devise and develop his or her own play, which is then staged in the theatre.
Except in the case of the Author-in-Residence, where the text has undergone a full-length production, new plays and writings have generally been presented publicly in the form of “reading productions” in the past period. This format of the theatrical event, which, despite its high aesthetic development in recent years, is still mainly attributed to the character of promoting the text rather than its optimal realisation, has also received attention and an attempt to be taken more seriously in recent years in the Slovene space – both by creative ensembles and audiences.
The status of reading performances in Slovenia is still progressing toward artistic independence, often stigmatized as merely supportive of a potential “real performance.” However, it is important not to overlook their impact in introducing audiences to new dramatic texts and fostering the evolution of new theatrical aesthetics in reading performances.

A new issue that has arisen is the observation that the texts created in the workshops are frequently crafted with an emphasis on reading performance rather than on a stage performance. The act of reading drama, which is no longer literature, but not yet theatre either, is constantly struggling, both professionally and bureaucratically, to confirm its own identity, often at the expense not only of creativity but also of funding. It seems that reading productions need full-fledged autonomy to begin with, and with it will come everything else.
In addition to design methodologies that draw primarily on existing drama/literature templates, in recent years, documentary projects have also emerged in the Slovenian space, which have primarily sought to break the so-called “cultural silence” on certain topics that represent a large part of our intimate and social environments, but which are rarely discussed by the public or by the theatre community as such. Two themes in particular stood out, namely class inequality and feminism.
As a representative of engaged directorial practice, the director Žiga Divjak (1992) has made a strong name for himself in recent years. In the period between 2017 and 2020, he has been intensively involved in “field” theatre – he has created projects based on his own or his team’s expeditions to marginal locations and to the most vulnerable groups, such as migrant and precarious populations. In various forms of documentary theatre, the textual materials consisted of first-person narratives, testimonies, bureaucratic documents, legislative reports and media statements. Most often, these “dramatic texts” assumed a collaged structure, consisting of raw facts (discrimination at work, at the state border) on the one hand, and extremely intimate confessions on the other (personal and family hardships, shame, hopelessness). Divjak’s consistent engaged stance, which undoubtedly shed light on themes that are usually excluded from the dominant representations within Slovenian theatre, also divided the audience, as a part of them appreciated his engagement, while another part sceptically condemned it from the point of view of exploiting the powerless for the sake of one’s own creativity and success. Regardless, from the very beginning of his career, Divjak has undoubtedly used his “position of power” to turn it into a channel for the “unheard voices” of contemporary society.

A rather fresh stage phenomenon in the past season was the cycle Sex Education II,[4] conceived and directed by Tjaša Črnigoj (1988). The year-long process consisted of five performances, which explored (female) sexual pleasure as a basic sexual right within the framework of human rights, through different aesthetic approaches and thematic materials. The artists explored themes such as painful sexual intercourse and vaginismus, consent, sexual pleasure for women with disabilities, alternative sexual practices and the history of sex education in Yugoslavia. In all five works, the performance material was informed by extensive documentary material, which the artists gathered through expert interviews, research, investigations and testimonies. In addition to introducing new dimensions and potentials of documentary theatre in Slovenia, the series undoubtedly represented a remarkable political move, as the content presented in these events had never been publicly exposed (performed) in the history of Slovenian theatre, let alone with such a detailed, in-depth, sensitive and socially critical approach.
It is really difficult to record the extraordinary complexity of the content of Slovenian drama, especially in the field of new, young writing, in such a short article. New Slovenian drama is characterised by a remarkable diversity of themes, formats and aesthetic questionings. Judging by the recent nominations and awards for dramatic texts, our current drama is certainly filled with elements of (auto)biography and autofiction, but in constant dialogue with social reality. In acknowledging the nominees for the Slavko Gruma Award for Best Original Dramatic Text (2022-23), it is essential to recognize the considerable stylistic and thematic diversity among the works presented. While it may seem ungracious to highlight specific names within such a broad array, I wish to emphasize the notable characteristics of the nominated texts. Both The Text of the Body by Anja Novak Anjuta, the award recipient, and The Girls by Nina Kuclar Stiković, a nominee, exemplify distinct forms that concurrently convey a sense of noble modernity in both structure and content.
The Text of the Body elucidates the significance of establishing a space characterized by profound inner turmoil, exemplified by anorexia. This condition serves to highlight the complex interplay between the mind and body, thought and physicality, as well as the dualities of beauty and fear within contemporary individuals. Furthermore, it posits that poetry can infiltrate our daily existence, provided that we remain open to its presence, and underscores the potential of art to facilitate the process of de-traumatization.

The documentary drama The Girls is distinguished by its innovative form, prompting critical inquiries into the fundamental nature of drama. What defines drama? Can a seemingly superficial official format embody dramatic qualities? The answer is affirmative, contingent upon the context in which it is situated.
In contemporary discourse, the distinctions between personal and private spheres warrant examination. It is crucial to recognize that the narrative addresses injustices at a systemic level; while the text presents an individual storyline, it simultaneously critiques the broader bureaucratic system. Both texts exhibit a commendable degree of courage in terms of structure and content, as they not only embrace innovation but also convey a profound sense of expressive vulnerability.
Endnotes
[1] King Ubu. Based on Alfred Jarry’s King Ubu. Dir. Jernej Lorenci, SNG Drama Ljubljana, premiere 30 Jan 2016.
[2] Simona Semenič: no title yet. Dir. Tomi Janežič, Slovene Youth Theatre – Mladinsko, premiere 6 October 2018.
[3] The Young Playwright Award was established in 2012.
[4] Sex Education II. Dir. Tjaša Črnigoj, Nova pošta, Maska Ljubljana and Slovenian Youth Theatre – Mladinsko), 2022-2023.

*Zala Dobovšek is a dramaturge, theatre critic, theatrologist and Assistant Professor of dramaturgy and performing arts studies at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). In 2022 she published the book Theatre and War: Performing Responses to the Wars of the 1990s in the Former Yugoslavia. She is the current President of the Association of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists of Slovenia.
Copyright © 2024 Zala Dobovšek
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #30, Dec. 2024
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