In her scholarly monograph, theatrologist Sandra Jenko shows the development of the German theater in Ljubljana from the late 19th to the early 20th century. With his research and findings, he fills a blank spot in Slovenian theater historiography.
The central part of the book sheds light on the functioning of the provincial German stage, which was housed in the building of today's SNG Drama Ljubljana in the regional capital of Carniola.
The Jubilee Theater of Emperor Franz Jožef in Ljubljana opened its doors on October 4, 1911, and its closure coincided with the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy.
During the eight theater seasons under the administration of the German Theater Society, three principals changed; the artistic and economic thinking of the management and the influences of the socio-political environment and the First World War were reflected in the repertoire, the selection of actors, the quality of performances, and the reactions of critics and audiences.
In the book, the author Sandra Jenko treats the Jubilee Theater as a cultural temple of Ljubljana, a stronghold of German-Austrian patriotism and, last but not least, as a mirror of society and historical events. He approaches the topic analytically and quantitatively, and less so in an evaluative way. He leaves the interpretation of the researched data almost entirely to the reader, who provides him with numerous graphs, staff lists and the repertoire of the Jubilee Theater as tools.
