The Visoko Chronicle

Première 20 January 2018, Main Stage SNT Drama Ljubljana
Running time 3 hours 40 minutes. One interval.

Director Jernej Lorenci

Dramaturg Matic Starina
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Composer Branko Rožman
Lighting designer Pascal Mérat
Choreographer Gregor Luštek
Language consultant Tatjana Stanić
Assistant directors Mirjana Medojević, August Braatz

Cast
Tamara Avguštin
Nina Ivanišin
Klemen Janežič
Aljaž Jovanović
Janez Škof

Adaptation by creators of the performance

The Visoko Chronicle is a historical novel, first published in 1919 in instalments in a literary magazine Ljubljanski zvon, and subsequently in a book form in 1921. Considered unfinished due to the author’s death prior to its completion, The Visoko Chronicle ranks as one of the best Slovenian novels of all times. Although it is set in the 17th century, its historical themes ̶ the Thirty Years War, witch hunts and the persecution of Protestants ̶ made it easily accessible for readers after the Great War. Since then every new generation has detected their own issues in the novel. The old-fashioned style of chronicles is characterized by flowery and vibrant language allowing the author’s imagination and emotions to blend with convincing irony and realistic observations of life. In terms of subject matter, Tavčar combined the idea of a fight against bigotry and social backwardness, with patriotism and a love of one’s native soil. His choice of a rural topic is matched by his descriptive skills in presenting the beauty of one’s native land and by manifest anti-German attitude. How topical is a chronicle of long-gone times when it addresses us a hundred years later - from a theatre stage?

Post-performance talk with the artists in the Mezzanine.