The majority of the first issue of the 12th year is represented by discussions prepared on the basis of contributions to Amphitheater to the symposium, which is about "The Survival of Comedy / The Survival of Comedy" held on October 5 and 6, 2023 in the hall of the Slovenian Theater Institute (SLOGI) in Ljubljana. After centuries of the crisis of "pure" dramatic genres (at least on the declarative level) and the dominance of mixed genres, the time has come for a renewed theoretical shake-up of the question of what is actually happening with comedy. Even a cursory glance at the repertoires of drama theaters shows that the story is by no means finished with comedy, as it is still somehow "alive", agile. The authors of the articles thus asked themselves the questions of what comedy is today, what are the types of comedy and its forms - both in the sense of dramatic and theatrical genres - and what is the socio-political context that fundamentally defines it. The issue thus brings eight original articles on this topic; three are published in both Slovenian and English.
Lada Čala Feldman's discussion asks this question while analyzing Philippe Le Guay's film Alcest on a bicycle (2013), which is intertextually related to Molière's The hypocrite, while at the same time re-contextualizing the comedy genre and restoring its original subversive effect.
Jure Gantar undertakes an analysis of unsuccessful comedies by top writers from roughly the same historical period (Flaubert, Henry James, Chekhov). The plays he deals with have failed on the stage in their time. Gantar analyzes the causes of such a fate.
Radka Kunderová discusses the interconnectedness of the political and the comic in Czech theater at the beginning of the 1990s. The first years of transition marked Czech society and directed its interests. Take a closer look at the high-profile show Our our furians (Our Arrogants) by Peter Léble from 1994.
Mateja Pezdirc Bartol deals with special aspects of comedy, namely the depiction of gender relations. It analyzes the social constructions of genders, roles and professions in some cases of contemporary Slovenian comedy, especially those in which a woman plays the main role, and in doing so notes the playing with traditional patterns and their subversion.
At the core of Tomaž Toporišič's discussion are the mixed genres of Slovenian comedy, especially those that reach the absurd and the grotesque. The author examines a series of examples of complex or hybrid comedy machines from Emil Filipčič to Iva Š. Slosar, focusing on the destabilized subjectivity in them.
Gašper Troha tackles the topical issue of ecological disaster. Through two examples of contemporary Slovenian theater - Divjakova The heat and Zupančičevo This game will be over - explores two approaches to the mentioned topic, serious and comic.
In her article, Ana Kocjančič deals with the unknown but extremely interesting Ljubljana performances of Audran's operetta La Mascotte, which was directed by Bratko Kreft with comic-avant-garde elements between the two wars.
The contribution of Maša Rada Buh and Niko Žnidaršič discusses the relationship between the culture of cancellation ("cancel culture") with its command of political correctness and comedy and places this relationship in a socio-political context. He also wonders if there is actually a paradox between them, but resolves this question in another way.
Outside the thematic block, an extensive and detailed study by Primož Jesenko on the white spot of Slovenian theater criticism of the 19th century is published. With a careful analysis of the German records of Leopold Kordeš from the time when theater production in Slovenia was still emerging from amateurism, he creates a broader picture of the cultural landscape in Slovenia at that time.
Educator Dušan Brešar has prepared a valuable overview of the theatrical creativity of the blind and partially sighted from the beginning after the end of the First World War to the present day. The testimonies of the participants give the article even more weight.
Maja Murnik, chief and responsible editor
The Survival of Comedy / The Survival of Comedy
Lada Čale Feldman
Alceste à bicyclette and Molière's Melancholic Comedy - Rejuvenation or Burial?
Alceste à bicyclette and Molière's Melancholic Comedy: A Rejuvenation or a Turn Off?
Jure Gantar
Anatomy of a fiasco
The Anatomy of Failure
Radka Kunderová
Comedy and politics in the Czech theater after 1989
The Comic and the Political in the Czech Theater After 1989
Mateja Pezdirc Bartol
Transcending gender stereotypes in contemporary Slovenian comedy (Ditka – Milena – Bogdana)
Going Beyond Gender Stereotypes in Contemporary Slovenian Comedy (Ditka–Milena–Bogdana)
Tomaž Toporišič
Paratactic absurdism and (no longer) dramatic comedy from Jesih to Semenič and beyond
Paratactic Absurdism and (No Longer) Dramatic Comedy from Jesih to Semenič and Beyond
Gašper Troha
Socially critical potential of comedy on the topic of ecological disaster
The Social-Critical Potential of Comedy and the Issue of Ecological Catastrophe
Ana Kocjančič
Operetta La Mascotte (Lucky girl) directed by Bratko Kreft
Operetta La Mascotte (The Girl of Happiness), directed by Bratko Kreft
Maša Radi Buh, Nik Žnidaršič
Where are the boundaries?
Where Are the Boundaries?
Discussion / Article
Primož Jesenko
Proto-critic Leopold Kordeš between conception and impossibility
Protocritic Leopold Kordeš Between Inception and Impossibility
Essay / Essay
Dušan Brešar
In the dark glow of stage lights
Call for articles: About work in theater and performance
Call for Articles: On Labor in Theater and Performance
Instructions for authors
Submission Guidelines
Invitation to discussions/Call for papers
Editor-in-Chief: Maja Murnik, PhD
Editorial Board: dr. Zala Dobovšek (University of Ljubljana), prof. dr. Jure Gantar (Dalhousie University, CA), M.Sc. Primož Jesenko (Slovenian Theater Institute), dr. Matic Kocijančič (Slovenian Theater Institute), prof. dr. Bojana Kunst (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, DE), assistant professor dr. Blaž Lukan (University of Ljubljana), Assoc. prof. dr. Aldo Milohnić (University of Ljubljana), Ph.D. Gašper Troha (SLOGI), editor. prof. dr. Barbara Orel (University of Ljubljana), editor. prof. dr. Mateja Pezdirc Bartol (University of Ljubljana), Ph.D. Maja Šorli (University of Ljubljana), Ed. prof. dr. Tomaž Toporišič (University of Ljubljana)
International Editorial Board: Mark Amerika, MFA (University of Colorado, US), izr. prof. dr. Marin Blažević (Sveučilište u Zagrebu, HR), Ramsay Burt, PhD (De Montfort University, GB), Joshua Edelman, PhD (Manchester Metropolitan University, GB), Anna Maria Monteverdi, PhD (Università degli Studi di Milano, IT), Janelle Reinelt, PhD (The University of Warwick, GB), Anneli Saro, PhD (Tartu Űlikool, EE), prof. dr. Miško Šuvaković (Univerzitet Singidunum, RS), prof. Stephen Elliot Wilmer (Trinity College Dublin, IE)
Co-Publisher: Slovenian Theater Institute (for Gašper Troha, director) and Publishing House of the University of Ljubljana (for Gregor Majdič, rector of the University of Ljubljana)
