SEASON OF LOVE AND SUCH THINGS
2023/2024 — Season 68
Bertolt Brecht

Saint Joan of the Stockyards

Directed by: Davide Sacco, Agata Tomšič / ErosAntEros
Co-production: Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / National Theatre, Mladinsko Theatre in cooperation with Cankarjev dom, TNL – Luxembourg National Theatre, Stable Theatre Bolzano, ErosAntEros – POLIS Teatro Festival
Première: 8. 11. 2024 (Mladinsko), 18. 4. 2024 (gledališče Arena del Sole – ERT, Bologna)
Cast
  • Danilo Nigrelli
  • Agata Tomšič
  • Milan Fras
    Vocals
  • Mina Špiler
    Vocals, effects
  • Bojan Krhlanko
    Drums
  • Rok Lopatič
    Synthesizer
  • Vitja Balžalorsky
    Guitar, effects
  • Felix Adams, Marco Lorenzini, Maximilien Ludovicy-Blom, Wolfram Koch, Pitt Simon, Philippe Thelen
    In video
  • Boris Kos, Robert Prebil, Matej Recer, Klemen Ulrih, Vito Weis
    In audio
Credits
  • Translation (Slovenian): Mojca Kranjc
  • Translation (Italian): Franco Fortini, Ruth Leiser
  • Translation (English): Ralph Manheim
  • Concept, Set design: Davide Sacco, Agata Tomšič / ErosAntEros
  • Original live music: Laibach
  • Composer: Matevž Kolenc
  • Dramaturgy: Urška Brodar, Florian Hirsch, Aldo Milohnić, Agata Tomšič
  • Video design: Akaša Bojić, Luka Umek / Komposter
  • Lighting design: Vincenzo Bonaffini
  • Sound design: Matej Gobec, Marko Turel
  • Costume design: Arianna Fantin
  • Language consultant (Slovenian): Mateja Dermelj
  • Direction and dramaturgy assistant: Ula Talija Pollak
  • Technical direction: Massimo Gianaroli
  • Stage manager: Liam Hlede
  • Head machinist: Alfonso Pintabuono
  • Props: Luca Piga
  • Head electrician: Lorenzo Maugeri
  • Tonski tehnik: Andrea Melega
  • Video technician: Salvatore Pulpito
  • Wardrobe: Eleonora Terzi
  • Surtitles: Tina Malič
Description

Economy, capital, financial speculation, exploitation of workers – these are the major themes at the heart of Saint Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht. The play was written after the great collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, which brought about, first in the United States and then in Europe, ten years of economic crisis, industrial failures, land abandonment, unemployment, poverty, continuing right up to the Second World War. Today we are in permacrisis, the centres of production have shifted, the great working masses no longer live in the privileged West and the owners are more difficult to identify, but the exploitation of living beings and resources has not stopped; on the contrary, it has generated other changes, such as global warming, wars, pandemics, energetic crises – consequences of the same diseased economic system. All of this continues to make Saint Joan of the Stockyards a contemporary text that addresses issues close to us and offers us the opportunity to connect them in a dialectical relation to our present through the use of reality videos. And if the billionaires reread Marx to save capitalism from itself, we reread Saint Joan of the Stockyards to free ourselves from it, bringing it to the scene with a staging in which Brecht’s words are entrusted to actors of different languages, precisely because in the age of globalisation, only by joining forces we can achieve the revolution that will ensure that future generations continue living on this planet. The music for the project is composed and performed on stage by the cult band Laibach.

Guest performances

  • Stable Theatre Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy, 19 November 2024
  • TNL – Luxembourg National Theatre, Luxembourg, 15 & 16 November 2024
  • Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 8–12 November 2024
  • Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna, Italy, 24 April 2024
  • Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT, Bologna, Italy, 18–21 April 2024
Press downloads
SURTITLES

Performance in Italian, Slovenian, German, English with surtitles.