Passion Play

This time, Iztok Mlakar has turned to the New Testament for inspiration, to the life of Jesus Christ. Although the title Passion Play directly alludes to the form of the mediaeval spiritual drama which could already include comical elements, Iztok Mlakar writes Christ’s life, work and suffering in his own unique comic genre with characteristic dialect, mixing dramatic scenes with songs.
The text pays full respect to the Biblical heritage, as Iztok Mlakar writes for the stage like he writes his songs: he exposes the human virtues and “virtues” delicately, yet sharply, but always with an open and an understanding heart. This time, his writing brings his understanding and vision of one of the fundamental texts of the Western civilisation. His pen produces a glib, witty and clever dialogue and full-blooded figures, earthy and unbelievably contemporary – regardless of whether they are human characters like the Three Wise Men, Joseph, Mary, the Pharisee, the Sadducee, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Judas …, or the mystical like Jesus, the Angel or the Devil.
When confronted with a religious and historic topic, the author of course looks back from the point in which we are today. The key point when theatralising Jesus’s life is, after all, the question of how the Saviour and his values would be accepted today, when the society is similarly stratified into the impoverished and the rich social elite. Who would be taken by Jesus’s life, inspired, enchanted … and who frightened or endangered? Who would want to follow him, who would use him, who would crucify him?
Actor Iztok Mlakar débuted as a playwright in 2007 with the extremely well-received farce A Healer by Force!, which won several awards and was performed over two hundred times. In 2011, a similar fate happened to his second play, the farcical morality play Everyman. Like A Healer by Force! and Everyman, the performance of Passion Play has become a bestseller and has already been repeated more than 100 times.