SATIRIC COMEDY
Subtitle: A Carnival Play about a Progressive Tsar and Parliament
NUMBER OF PERSONS: 9 (9m)
PLACE AND TIME OF EVENT: "The action takes place behind the ninth mountain, behind the ninth water in the land of morning and under the gentle sky." The author decided on a fairy tale diction, so that the temporal placement is also left to the freedom of staging.
SOURCE: The booklet was published in Ljubljana in 2008 by Dragotin Hribar. The author used the pseudonym Jakob Dolinar.
Writer Fran Milčinski (1867 – 1932) was a lawyer by profession, a prominent judge in Ljubljana before World War I, and in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia also a member of the highest court in the country, the Supreme Court in Zagreb, called the Table of Seven. He drew inspiration for his works from case law, both as a judge for juveniles and for Birds Without a Nest (1917)This story was dramatized by Primož Kozak in 1975 at the Slovenian Youth Theatre.
In addition to satirical stories and humorous stories, he also wrote fairy tales and youth stories. He began writing and publishing prose while still a student. He also became involved in the organization and management of Slovenian theater very early on. At the turn of the century (1899), he became a member of the Ljubljana theater management. During this period, he was also the secretary of the Dramatic Society. In accordance with his views on drama, he also began to write plays. His debut A short-term play about space for the Prešeren Monument (1904) followed Brother Sokol (2005), which was as much a comedy as it was Gypsies (2006) staged at the Provincial Theatre in Ljubljana. In the following years he wrote more plays From the ninth land (1908), Volkashin (1913) and Where there is love, there is God (1913), a dramatization of Tolstoy's story. After World War I he became a member of the Slovenian Theatre Consortium. In his later years he created two more plays for young people, Mighty Ring and A cheerful game about a sad princess (both 1923) and a satire with a hero from the famous Levstik story, which he subtitled Krpan the younger (1925). Even today, Milčinski is still present on Slovenian stages, not with his comedies, but with dramatizations of stories about the Butalci. Pistons are his most frequently performed work, although the author never intended them as stage texts. One of the dramatizations is also available in two versions on our website.
Link to: Fran Milčinski, Jaša Jamnik Pistons
Link to: Fran Milčinski, Jaša Jamnik Fools!!!
On our website you can view an e-exhibition about Fran Milčinski and his drama. The author of the exhibition is Tea Rogelj.
Link to e-exhibition.
PARLIAMENT AS A VIRTUAL DEMOCRACY
In a short play in verse, Milčinski informs us that party life and the theater of the State Assembly are just a farce that helps maintain the monarchy. The idea of establishing a parliament is most enthusiastically supported by the absolute ruler. Before he introduces parliamentarism, he has only a democrat as his opposition, but with the State Assembly a much larger circus is coming to the country, which will keep people busy and will not threaten the Tsar, but will only consolidate his throne.
The plot of the comedy in verse is centered on the endless worship of the Tsar, the absolute ruler. In addition to the diplomat and the court poet, he is praised by the guards and servants. The only one who grumbles, albeit very cautiously, is the democrat; it turns out that he is also part of the system, a kind of paid opposition. When the Tsar orders the democrat's liquidation, the diplomat intervenes and prevents the beheading:
Hey, stop, because it's only a democrat of yours!
That everything that is beautiful and gentle,
Wipe the filth from your tongue,
It should not be considered evil to him,
But he gets paid for it.
The plot involves the establishment of a parliament. Minister Tomaž returns from abroad, where parliamentary life is already an established practice, enthusiastic about parliamentarism, while the diplomat stubbornly opposes the introduction of a national assembly. Minister Tomaž is supported by the Tsar himself:
Why not, if the Tsar wants it?
Because everyone has a better court
Today, our national assembly...
All participants present arguments for and against. Minister Tomaž, with the Tsar's permission, converts the most hardened:
Parliament is popular
with rulers, with lords,
among the townspeople, among the peasants,
Everyone rushes to listen to him,
everything is just about him,
men, women, old and young,
Everyone loves going to the National Assembly!
In the end, the inhabitants of the Ninth Land establish a parliament in a carnival atmosphere and stage parliamentary debates.