Cankerjev Dom, Slovenian premiere 10th November 2024
What is Slovenia best known for? The most common answers are likely the ski jump in Planica, the controversial philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and the band Laibach. The last one is a part of the experimental art collective NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst), which was primarily focused on criticizing totalitarian systems by mimicking their aesthetics. This technique, which Slavoj Žižek calls ‘overidentification,’ is something people either love or criticize. Laibach, which
once shocked audiences by copying the aesthetics of Nazi Germany, has now become a part of Slovenian museums and history – a monument to its rebellious past.
Neither Laibach nor NSK critique the current system. Yet something about them inspired the creative duo ErosAntEros (Davide Sacco and Agata Tomšič) to invite the band to collaborate on the production of Saint Joan of the Stockyards, based on Bertolt Brecht’s play of the same name. The production is a grand-scale endeavour made possible by a Slovenian-Italian partnership involving organizations such as Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / National Theatre, Mladinsko Theatre in cooperation with Cankarjev dom, TNL – Luxembourg National Theatre, Stable Theatre Bolzano, and ErosAntEros – POLIS Teatro
Festival. The international character of the performance, artificially created out of the necessity to secure funding, is seen in its multilingualism. It is a tangible effect of cultural funding, with its results clearly visible on stage.
Both the duo ErosAntEros and Mladinsko Theatre have previously drawn upon Brecht’s work. Saint Joan of the Stockyards, however, is their first adaptation of this drama written around 1930. Brecht was probably inspired to write this drama thanks to Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, which described the scandals in Chicago’s stockyards and exposed the terrible conditions of the working class. Brecht refers to the same events in Chicago. His drama is about greedy businessmen and poor workers. The German theatre-maker describes the relationship between rich and poor by criticizing the capitalist system and its impact on human sensitivity.
The title character, jokingly named Joanna Dark by the playwright (played by Agata Tomšič), is a member of the Black Straw Hats (a Salvation Army-like group) and seeks to challenge the rulers of the meat industry, though even she is not without flaws. For the performance, the Black Straw Hats have been changed into regular Black Hats and are portrayed on stage by the band Laibach, who also composed the music for the performance. They perform Brecht’s original songs but reinterpret them according to their own musical style, giving the pieces a new character. The villains are Pierpont Mauler (Danilo Nigrelli), a meat king, and his right-hand man, played by Mladinsko’s Blaž Šef. The stage also features stockyard’s workers played by Slovenian actors, and meatpackers performed by Italian actors. Brecht’s characters have been simplified, and some do not appear physically on stage but are instead projected onto the back wall as part of a video display.
The play is made up of several scenes with a specific aesthetic, which are interspersed with each other. These are further divided into segments featuring Mauler and his assistant with Joan, Joan with the workers, and Mauler and the other businessmen, who interact through video calls. Additionally, news reports are displayed like a recurring refrain between scenes in which a journalist with an American accent delivers updates on the stock market, its conditions, rising tensions, and protests. All of this is presented in a dark aesthetic. The only contrasting colours are white and red. The workers’ uniforms are white while red serves as the background colour for the news flashes that frequently pops up on screen and is also the colour of the liquid that falls into a transparent bathtub in which Mauler lies naked. This bathtub is the only object on the stage which intrigues the audience. The use of technology, modern furniture on stage, and contemporary costumes aim to bring Brecht’s story into a modern context. The performance uses projectors and animation is displayed during the songs. In addition, recordings of meat grinding are projected from time to time, giving the stage the character of a butcher’s shop and also revealing a further interpretative layer referring to the working masses as meat that is exploited by the richest.
Saint Joan of the Stockyards, ErosAntEros. Photos: Daniela Neri
While this aesthetic layer of the performance is relatively minimalist, from the colour palette to the objects on stage, it is far from feeling empty. On the contrary, the video elements and the two contrasting styles of acting create an effect of maximalism, which is not necessarily beneficial. The Italian actors, as well as Tomšič in the titular role, perform in a classical, dramatic style full of emotion. In contrast, the Slovenian actors from Mladinsko Theatre adopt a Brechtian approach, incorporating humour, stepping out of their roles, and embracing the theatrical conventions of the playwright.
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most important theatre reformers of the 20th century, known for developing epic theatre. One of the German playwright’s central tenets was the idea of using theatre as a tool for education. His theatre aimed to promote social analysis and raise political awareness among the working class. Epic theatre differed from traditional dramatic theatre in several ways. In epic theatre, the imitation of reality was not the primary focus; instead, the text was simplified to draw attention to the social issues being addressed. As a result, the acting style also differed from that found in conventional dramatic theatre. One of the key formal principles of epic theatre was the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt), which required actors to distance themselves from their characters to emphasize social critique. Consequently, Brecht’s plays often contained significant political content and irony, both in the dialogues and the songs. In classic Brechtian theatre, there is an absence of pathos, solemnity, realism, and overt emotionalism.
In Davide Sacco’s and Agata Tomšič’s adaptation there was much less of Brecht than I expected. The production felt like a classic Laibach performance, who continue their flirtation with monumentality. As I mentioned, some of the actors drew on the achievements of dramatic theatre by replicating reality rather than distancing themselves from it, which goes against Brecht’s core principles. Despite a great ensemble of actors from the Mladinsko Theatre, headed by Blaž Šef, who excel at ironic, distanced acting (in fact, they had already shown this a year earlier in Sebastijan Horvat’s production of Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich), the production did not pass the Brecht test. It also lacked one of my favourite Brecht qualities – humour.
Saint Joan of the Stockyards remains a relevant play, primarily due to the growing power of businessmen in advanced capitalism. Factory workers in large corporations still face issues similar to those experienced by Brecht’s characters. I believe it is a very important piece to present today, and I’m glad the creators decided to stage this drama. However, the formal modernization of the play did not fully highlighted its contemporary relevance, which is a key aspect. The combination of the monumental form and the collaborating with the popular band did not quite bring out a fresh, modern interpretation. Instead, it somewhat overshadowed the play’s strongest elements.
Credits:
Producers: ErosAntEros/ Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / National Theatre, Mladinsko Theatre in cooperation with Cankarjev dom, TNL – Luxembourg National Theatre, Stable Theatre Bolzano, ErosAntEros – POLIS Teatro Festival
Directed by: Davide Sacco, Agata Tomšič//Concept and 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
For further information, visit: erosanteros.org
Further reading: ErosAntEros: Bringing Brecht’s Saint Joan of the Stockyards to the stage
Further reading: Laibach: “We don’t belong to one state only – we belong to all of them”
Karolina Bugajak is a theater critic from Poland, currently living in Ljubljana. She studied culture and contemporary art at the University of Lodz. The title of her master's thesis was "Theatricality and Exaggeration. Camp aesthetics as a strategy for creating new identities in the plays of Grzegorz Jaremko". Her main theatrical interests include topics such as institutional criticism, the representation of marginalized groups in plays, and most recently the theater of the former Yugoslav states.
