"“My tongue tricked me … and this tongue is more constant than their heart and mind.”"

on programme

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premiere

06. October 2011, SNG Nova Gorica

about text

If the elections are a fight between political parties, then the post-elections time is a fight for positions. All means are allowed and turning with the wind is the most popular activity. In Serfs (also translated as The Bondsmen), Ivan Cankar, who in his work mercilessly sliced the Slovenian soul and wittily whipped the narrow minds and narrow hearts of his contemporaries, confronts us once more with the problem of our national character. The post-election events are set in a teachers' room, because it's the teachers who mint the (self-) consciousness of the future generations. When the newly elected government waves its whip, the majority bend their backs and turn their coats. Everyone but Jerman, who courageously resists the unification of the opinions and a redefinition of values. In the chorus that whistles folk tunes unisono in its care for the good of the nation, shivers from fear of scandal, and raises humble servants with a hard hand Jerman has no place.
Serfs thus at the same time confront us particularly with our understanding of democracy, dialogue, and tolerance and, whenever they are performed, answer the core question about what is it that the Slovenes do to ourselves.

Serfs, first published in 1910, were written as a vitriolic outburst of Cankar's contempt after the country parliamentary elections in 1907 which the conservatives won and that made the author’s life and work really difficult. Due to censorship, the play was not staged until after the World War I, in Trieste, and some thirty stagings followed; this is the first one at the SNG Nova Gorica.

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