Series of lectures and talks SLOGI and Drama
American dream and anti-American sentiment: the early reception of Edward Albee in European socialist countries
Edward Albee's drama American dream (1961) was first performed in Slovenia in 1963 (directed by Žarko Petan on the so-called Chamber Stage of the Ljubljana Drama Theatre), just under two years after its American premiere. Albee's most famous work, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), was staged in our country with a delay of less than two years (directed by Mile Korun, also in Drama). Albee's works - in addition to the ones already mentioned - The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance, The Garden, The Lady of Dubuque, Three Tall Women and The Goat or Who is Sylvia? – have been performed on our professional stages more than twenty times to date.
The first (and to this day the only) Slovenian production The American dream was received as one of the highlights of the domestic theatre season of 1962/1963, and was also successful abroad, with acclaimed tours in Warsaw, Sarajevo and Belgrade. Both Polish and Yugoslav critical responses to this production offer a vivid insight into the characteristics of Albee's early reception in European socialist countries, which was primarily marked by attempts to place the American playwright in the context of the ideological and cultural confrontations of the Cold War.
In the lecture Dr. Matica Kocijančiča, researcher and curator of the Slovenian Theatre Institute, we will walk through the various nuances of this interpretative framework, from its most pronounced features in the Soviet Union, through its variations in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Bulgaria, to the specifics of Yugoslav and Slovenian reception.
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).
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.
