Slovensko narodno gledališče Nova Gorica

Miha Nemec, Nejc Valenti

Life®anti

A baptismal production

Video presentation

PREMIERE

6. marec 2011
Gledališče Glej, Ljubljana

17. april 2011
SNG Nova Gorica

Coproduction

Glej Theatre, TNK (Teater na konfini) and the School of Arts at the University of Nova Gorica.

The Suppliers are a theatre event. The Suppliers are slandering.
slander [‘slɑ:ndəʳ]
n
1. (Law) Law
a. defamation in some transient form, as by spoken words, gestures, etc.
b. a slanderous statement, etc.
2. any false or defamatory words spoken about a person; calumny
vb
to utter or circulate slander (about)
[via Anglo-French from Old French escandle, from Late Latin scandalum a cause of offence; see SCANDAL]
slanderer n
slanderous adj
slanderously adv
slanderousness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003.

The Suppliers is a script that was created from newspaper articles published in Slovenski narod back in 1900. The articles “Director's Report”, “Thalia”, “Your Thalia” and “Our Thalia, Our Tyranny” [Poročilo intendanta, Talija, Vaša Talija! in Naša Talija naše trinoštvo] are the worst kind of cultural and intellectual mudslinging that the Slovenian public (cultural and wider) could follow in the media of that time. The Suppliers are the Wild West of our cultural history. It took place in the period of the “division of spirits”, harsh party and ideological antagonisms that were offering brighter, but also darker glimpses of the future. And where can we find ourselves? Is our time really so far from the debates of those days?

Influenced by theatre backstage (which left no author cold, not even the likes of Chekhov, Bulgakov and Chaplin who used this “theatre within theatre” to create “classics”), Nemec wrote his script for The Suppliers. He got the leadership of the famous avant-garde Theatre Glej in Ljubljana (which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year) interested, and our theatre – the author’s parent theatre, which also celebrates 40 years since its first professional performance – to enter the project as a co-producer. Two other co-producers are the School of Arts at the University of Nova Gorica (Department of New Media) under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Purg and KD TNK – Teater na konfini (Theatre on the Border) from Nova Gorica.