Series of lectures and talks SLOGI and Drama
Gašper Troha: Who dances the rebel dance and when?
Slawomir Mrożek: Tango
Tango is a special play by an even more special playwright. Sławomir Mrożek was a Polish writer and journalist who, together with his wife, went on a tourist trip to Italy in 1963 and stayed there. Such an escape from behind the Iron Curtain was extremely problematic for the authorities, but in the following years Mrożek managed to force the status of a writer living and working abroad, without state support, while his works were still published and performed in Poland.
Right Tango may have contributed decisively to the resolution of the dispute between the author and the Polish authorities. It belongs to his first creative phase, which is characterized by inspiration from the drama of the absurd, a strong parody of totalitarian rule and the social events of the time and satire. It is marked by dramatic characters who are torn between authority or the dictates of social conditions and the desire for their own, individual existence. In this torn apart, the sensitive and thoughtful perish, while the violent and unscrupulous take control. Tango was first published in 1964 in the Polish theatre magazine Dialogue, was first performed in the former Yugoslavia, more precisely in Belgrade on April 21, 1965. On July 7, the first performance took place in Warsaw, on October 22 of the same year in the Ljubljana Drama Theater, and on May 25, 1966 in London. In the following years, Tango captivated the whole world and Mrożek became a theater star and one of the most exciting young European playwrights.
Mrožek has been around since 1960, when his Police in the SLG Celje (dir. Janez Vrhunc), constantly present on Slovenian stages, as Repertoar of Slovenian theaters records 28 performances of his works. Five of these performances are Tango.
Lecture Gasper Troha, director of the Slovenian Theatre Institute, will reveal the semantic subtleties of the dramatic text, the methods of performance in our country, and the echoes of this play by Mrożek. So who danced the rebellious Argentine dance? Against whom was the rebellion directed?
Free entry! Free tickets are available at the Drama box office (weekdays from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturdays from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., one hour before the performance or other event).
You are cordially invited!
Archive recording of the lecture
In the series of lectures and talks SLOGI and Drama the colleagues of the Slovenian Theater Institute (SLOGI) put the current performances of SNG Drama Ljubljana in a wider historical, artistic and social context before the premieres in the 2023/24 season. The events offer an exclusive insight into the collections of the SLOGI - Theater Museum and encourage the audience to think about the themes and questions raised by the selected dramatic works, their critical reception and staging history even before viewing individual performances.
