Hurrah, Nosferatu!

The centre of Hurrah, Nosferatu! is a family with a six-year-old daughter suffering from Dravet syndrome, a rare disease with severe epileptic seizures so frequent that they cause developmental delays. Each in their own way, the father, the mother and a teenage brother confront the specifics of their everyday life, dictated by Vida’s illness and all the stigmatisation and misunderstanding from their environment (including close relatives). Vida’s father Aleš, a writer, unknowingly blends his fear and guilt into his stories. Vida’s seizures and his fear for her life resonate louder and louder in the crime drama about a mysterious murder where a resigned alcoholic defendant Aleš is prepped for his court hearing by a young lawyer Vida.
In his début play (nominated for the Grum Award in 2009), Andrej E. Skubic, an award-winning writer and translator, reaches into his personal parenting experience. With his specific, lively and glib language, he honestly presents the life of a family with a special-needs child, yet at the same time also deals with the universal themes of guilt, loss and forgiveness.
The director of the performance, the multiple-award winning and internationally renowned playwright, director and performer Simona Semenič is no stranger to the topic of stigmatisation caused by illness; she dealt with her own epilepsy in her project I, the Victim.
The project is a part of the programme of the international network NETA and prèmiered at the international festival in Bucharest. One of the main goals of the NETA Association is to produce and promote Slovenian authors and projects and to connect non-profit cultural organisations and public institutions. For the performance Hoorrah, Nosferatu! four producers join forces: NETA, SNG Nova Gorica, the Mladinsko Theatre and Kulturno društvo B-51 (Ex Ponto)