The exhibition Theatre Work: Brecht on Slovenian Stages offers a concise overview of the profound impact Bertolt Brecht – the great German playwright, poet, prose writer, essayist as well as theoretician, director, and reformer of the theatre – has had on Slovenian theatre. The title of the exhibition is inspired by the celebrated book Theaterarbeit, which documented productions by Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble. Similarly, this exhibition explores Brecht and theatre work, but within the context of the history of Slovenian theatre.
The first encounter between Brecht and Slovenian theatre took place in 1937, when Bojan Stupica staged The Threepenny Opera at SNT Drama Ljubljana, under the title The Beggar’s Opera. Brecht returned to Slovenian stages only some time later, but from the mid-1950s on, he became a regular part of Slovenian theatre repertoires. An average of at least one of his works has been staged per year ever since. In professional theatres, Brecht has been staged most often at SNT Drama Ljubljana and SNT Maribor - Drama, while his works have also regularly featured in the curriculum of the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television.
The exhibition Theatre Work: Brecht on Slovenian Stages was created as part of the broader interdisciplinary project Bertolt Brecht – 70 Years On, conceived by Dr Aldo Milohnić and Dr Jakob Ribič, members of the research group at UL AGRFT. Dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the death of Bertolt Brecht, it involves, besides UL AGRFT, numerous other organizations, including SLOGI, NUK, the journal Amfiteater, Založba /*cf. publishing house, Anton Podbevšek Theatre, the Bertolt Brecht Archive at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, the International Brecht Society, and the Goethe-Institut Ljubljana. It encompasses an international symposium, book editions of new translations of Brecht’s writings, and exhibition events. The opening of the exhibition on October 6 at the Slovenian Theatre Institute – Theatre Museum will simultaneously launch the international symposium Speech on the (Dark) Times: Brecht’s Thought Then and Now, which will take place until 9 October in the same venue hosting the exhibition.
Exhibition authors: Dr Aldo Milohnić, Dr Jakob Ribič, and Ana Perne
Digitisation, graphic and technical design: Andrej Ovsec
Language consultant: Andraž Polončič Ruparčič
English language editor: Jana Renée Wilcoxen
Production: Slovenian Theatre Institute; project manager: Ana Perne
The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television of the University of Ljubljana in the framework of the research program Theatre and Interart Studies (P6-0376), co-financed by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency.
