DRAMATIC PERSONS: woman and man or married couple
SUBTITLE: pRisks from the married life of T. and P.On the back of the title page, the text is subtitled as new comedy. The text is difficult to define in terms of genre: it provokes laughter, which is replaced in the next scene by grotesque farce. This borders on the tragic, but remains within the framework of parody. Due to the mixture of genres, styles, and also because of the language, which is primarily a game or play and not a means of communication, the play is closest to the drama of the absurd.
The text was published in the theatre magazine of the Slovenian Youth Theatre (1996/97, no. 1).
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On August 17, 1996 at the Ohrid Summer Festival and on September 14, 1996 in the lower hall of the SMG. The married couple were played by Olga Grad and Niko Goršič, who also directed the play (as Nick Upper). The intensive creative dialogue between the director or creators of the performance and the author is also evidenced by his dedication at the beginning of the text (To the actors Olga and Niko). Emil Filipčič appeared as the author in the prologue of the play.
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Writer and playwright Emil Filipčič (1951) is a versatile artist with an extremely extensive literary oeuvre. Even before his first literary publications, he burst onto the scene with his provocative series Butnskala on Radio Študent (together with Mark Derganc). Also his first prose work Kerubini was written in tandem (with Branko Gradišnik).
Filipčič's style is characteristically relaxed, playful and humorous, full of mythological, political, literary, philosophical and even sporting references. Intertextual and metafictional references create a sense of anarchy, which comes to life in the chaos of genre and the constant breaking down of stereotypes. With her first stand-alone novel Grein Vaun (1979) established himself as one of the leading protagonists of the so-called new Slovenian prose, with his debut play Kegler (1981), however, with unusual and radical satirical gestures, he indicated the main characteristics of his theatre writing. In the background of the author's literary world, one can suspect the hippie movement, communes, experimentation with drugs, beatnik literature and the sexual revolution. But it all starts with a parodic attitude towards the literary canon and ideologies, even though the literary tradition is ever present in the author's plays and we cannot imagine them without Pirandello, Jarry, Beckett and, above all, Ionesco. In Filipčič's texts we can recognise the influence of the films of Luis Buñuel and, above all, Federico Fellini, and in his writing we can also see traces of popular culture, from Monty Python's Flying Circus to Alan Ford. Filipčič's playwriting adopted Slovenian attempts at absurdist drama and theatrical experimentation of his time (Glej Theatre, Pekarna and its predecessors). His writing is cynically destructive and at the same time parodically burlesque. The original use and combination of grotesque elements creates humour with a touch of absurdity, anguish and sadness. In a surrealist manner, it tirelessly combines the fantastic and the real and achieves humour through travesty, parody and persiflage. It also shares with the drama of the absurd a subversive verbal comedy: language games, trivial declarations, a Babel-like confusion of languages and linguistic registers, loose speech, illogic, semantic emptiness, patheticism and a Beckettian disintegration of meaning. His literature contains many of the characteristics of postmodernism: the fusion of the seemingly incompatible, the rapid alternation of the sublimely euphoric and the banal, the mixing of high and low literature, pop culture and the classics, the introduction of metafiction, and an all-round stylistic looseness.
The playwright's plays had a great resonance in the Slovenian cultural scene, as eight of his works were staged soon after their creation. According to Kegler (SNG Maribor, 1981) took the theatre stage in Prisoners of freedom (SMG Ljubljana, 1982), Altamira (SNG Ljubljana, 1982) and Sick Bride (SMG Ljubljana, 1984). The following text Atlantis (SMG Ljubljana, 1988) and File - baron Münhausen, which was staged as A divine tragedy (PG Kranj, 1989), drama 20th Century Fox (radio play entitled Stampedo, 1990), Psyche (SMG Ljubljana, 1992) and Merry home (SMG Ljubljana, 1996). In the following decade, a puppet play was staged King Alcohol (LG Ljubljana, 2002). Some of the texts are still waiting to be realised on stage: Bakhantke (1992), Indestructible (1995), Slave to the campaign (or King Peter the Sixth, 1997) and Pastor (2002). More recently, a theatre version of the Butnskale (co-production SMG Ljubljana and PG Kranj, 2016) and comedy Figaro is getting married (1994, reading performance, SNG Ljubljana, 2016).
Roman Ervin Kralj (1986) is a true literary-genre mix, as the author also included a play Altamira and Sick Bride, novel Autumn is (1995) also contains a comedy Psyche. In the meantime, a novel X-100 (1988). They follow: Keops pyramid (2005), Problems (2009, Prešeren Fund Prize), Mojstrovka (20123), The secret of pleasure (2013) and Seraph of Šarhova 2 (2015). The author has also published several short story collections and written screenplays for Three contributions to the Slovenian frenzy (Chronicle of Madness, 1983), youth film May and the little spider (1988) and Butnskalo (1995). He has also acted in the last two (in Butnskali the main character Ervin Kralj). He also starred in films by František Slaka (Eva, Crisis period) and in productions of his own plays: he appeared as Dingo in Altamiri, Adolf in Divine tragedies, Emil Filipčič in drama Merry home and in a puppet play King Alcohol. He has also acted in plays by other authors. La discreta enamorada Lope de Vega (MGL, 1988), in Feydeau's Fleas in the ear (SNG Ljubljana, 1996), in Gogol's To the Auditor (1997) and in Jovanović's Kozarcky Clinics (SSG Trieste, 1999).
PUBLICISTS, CRITICS AND LITERARY HISTORIANS ON THE PLAYS OF EMIL FILIPČIČ
In presenting the writings on Filipčič's drama, we have focused, due to the vastness of the material we have in the Slovenian Theatre Institute, mainly on texts that deal with the author's dramatic oeuvre as a whole or that attempt to place it in a broader literary-historical context. Some of the articles presented in the SLOGI library are also available online. Here we also provide some links to articles that are only available in electronic form.
The first comprehensive account of Emil Filipčič's dramatic texts was published by Taras Kermauner in 1984 in Problems (The last stage of Luddism, 22. 1984, No. 9-11, pp. 112-122).
The text is under a revised title (The limits of Luddism or the renewed quest for national power) also printed in the book History of Lipizzania, Today's Slovenian Drama 4 (Slovenian Theatre Museum, 2001).
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Kermauner also dealt with Filipčič's texts in his last work on drama, which he published (Between drama and memory, subtitle Between dreams and wakefulness, 2008).
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Posthumous publication of the work is available at the Digital Library of Slovenia Medved's Dramatics (Priests, townspeople, workers 4Among other playwrights, Kermauner also discussed Filipčič:
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Kermauner's article is also linked to a thought by Tomaž Toporišič:
"Filipčič's subsequent comedies of the 1980s, or the outlandish black comedies such as Atlantis, were, in the opinion of Taras Kermauner, whom we join, a complement to Filipčič's drama with a concrete analysis of the 1970s in Slovenia. And just as Atlantis, in a particular, Filipčič-esque paratactic way, subverted the political 1970s (we continue to use Kermauner's argument), namely that of the partisan generation and its adolescent opponents, who found themselves on the verge of crime, drugs, appearance, play, nothingness, Psycho, ten years later, reckons with a different and different historical period, or the present: with the for self-development Slovenia." (Zvon, 10. 2007, No. 3, p. 54)
Tomaž Toporišič, ten years younger, in his analysis of the relationship between dramatic texts and different media, also discusses all four "incarnations" of other Slovenian playwrights or their works. Butnskale, radio play, film, comic strip and theatre production (Slavic magazine, 65. 2017, No. 1, pp. 53-64).
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The 12th issue of the theatre magazine is also largely dedicated to Filipčič's drama. Masks (III. 1988-89). In addition to the print Atlantis and images from performances of the author's texts (17 photographs and posters), an analysis of some of Filipčič's plays entitled The Pathology of Modern Drama, written by Simon Kardum (pp. 29-39).
In the Proceedings Postmodern and contemporary Slovenian drama Tina Kosi analyzes the author's plays in relation to postmodernism (Dramatika Emil Filipčič, AGRFT, 2005).
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In the book Slovenian drama in the second half of the 20th century author Silvija Borovnik dedicated a separate chapter to Filipčič's drama (Slovenska matica, 2005).
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In his writings, Matevž Rudolf considered Emil Filipčič as a representative of the drama of the absurd:
»Filipčič builds his plays primarily on grotesqueness, which is one of the basic characteristics of the drama of the absurd. With grotesque, Filipčič discovers the truth in things, which is either hidden or most often taboo. His comic milieu is, as we have already mentioned, an associative comedy of the intellect, based on unusual word connections and the merging of their meanings with the unexpected, even bizarre."
This is the thought of Matevž Rudolf in an extensive article in the magazine Language and literature (Emil Filipčič between Luddism and the drama of the absurd, JiS 53. 2008, no. 5, p. 61). Matevž Rudolf already discussed the author's plays in his diploma thesis (Emil Filipčič and the drama of the absurd(Faculty of Arts, 2005).
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Rudolf also published an analysis of Filipčič's drama in the theatre magazine that was published at the time of the performance. Butnskale (Absurd? Absurd!, Theatre list of the Prešeren Theatre Kranj and the Slovenian Youth Theatre 2015/16, p. 18)
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Blaž Lukan is with the record Drama as (self)creation accompanied the publication of nine of Filipčič's dramatic texts (Dramas, Cankar Publishing House, 2014, pp. 701-715).
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The aforementioned edition was also reviewed by critics Anja Radaljac, Matej Bogataj and Aljaž Krivec, among others:
- – Anja Radaljac is about Drama pens in the online edition Literature (19. 3. 2015).
- – Matej Bogataj is the result of the Filipčič family Drama presented in Youth (6. 11. 2015, No. 45, p. 70) and in the broadcast From the book market on Radio ARS.
- – Aljaž Krivec published his account of Filipčič's drama in magazine Modernity (79. 2015, No. 10, pp. 1395-1397)
In his research on the Slovenian reception of Pierre Corneille, Tone Smolej also wrote about Filipčič's adaptation. Psyche, which he treats as an example of a travesty of a classical text.
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At the premiere Butnskale were organized in Kranj on March 29, 2016 symposium on Filipčič's dramaSome of the participating authors published parts of their contributions in the theatre magazine that came out during the performance, and Aldo Milohnić adapted his into an article. Filipčič's Atlantis, which was published in the journal Literature (29. 2017, no. 307-308, pp. 215-225).
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Two parts of the radio show are also dedicated to the symposium on Filipčič's drama. The stage: in the first, with the title On the (no longer) drama of Emil Filipčič, the contributions of Aldo Milohnić and Muanis Sinanović are presented. It was broadcast on April 19, 2016 on Radio ARS..
Text by Matevž Rudolf entitled Emil Filipčič, the crazy creator of the world, was broadcast a week later (Radio ARS, The stage, 26. 4. 2016).
The Slovenian Theatre Institute also has theatre lists and reviews of performances of Filipčič's plays, interviews with the author, and presentations of his works published in daily newspapers.
EDITIONS, TYPESCOPES AND MANUSCRIPTS
- Magazines, theater lists, monographic publications
The book edition of nine of Filipčič's plays in 2014 filled a major gap: for more than two decades, some of his drama texts were only available in magazine editions and theater lists, while most of them remained in typewritten form. The author included three plays in his novels Ervin Kralj and It's autumn.
The first Filipčič dramatic text to be printed was a play entitled File - baron Münhausen (Mentor, 1986, No. 2).
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In the same year, in the novel Ervin Kralj (1986) games released Altamira and Sick Bride.
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In three years it will be in the magazine Masks The drama Atlantis was published (March 1989, issue 12, pp. 103 – 116)
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As an original contribution to the mixing of literary genres, we should also mention the text How should I respond to France Pibernik? Instead of answering the literary historian's questions, Filipčič sent France Pibernik an excerpt from Atlantis, which is also partially published in the book Relationships in contemporary Slovenian drama (1992, MGL Library, no. 114).
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Theater play Psyche was first published at the premiere in the theatre magazine (Gl. list SMG, 1993/94). Psyche was published for the second time as part of Filipčič's novel Autumn is (1995).
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In the fortnightly Views The fifteenth scene from Filipčič's novel was published in 1996. Bacchante (6. 3. 1996, No. 5, p. 28) with accompanying text by Boris Pintar (Bacchantes in the bird grove). When the play Veselja dom was performed at the Slovenian Youth Theatre, the text was printed in the theatre's newsletter (1996/97, no. 1). In the magazine Dialogues the first three acts of the drama were published in 1998 Slave to the campaign (36. 1998, no. 11-12, pp. 79-110). A selection of the author's plays was published in 2014.
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- Typescripts and manuscripts
Filipčič's plays were frequently performed, and the Slovenian Theatre Institute has amassed a considerable number of typescripts of his plays. Here we present only typescripts of unpublished works and typescript versions of published plays that are titled differently from their final printed versions.
On February 16, 1989, the premiere took place at the Prešeren Theater in Kranj. Divine Tragedies, which is a remake of the game File – Baron Münchhausen and is also published on our websites.
Among the author's unpublished and unperformed texts are: Bakhantke (sig. K t 3111) and Indestructible (sig. K t 3386). Both are published on our website.
In the SLOGI library we have a copy of the manuscript of the last, fifth act of the play Slave to the campaign (1997, sig. K t 2789):
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Unstaged drama Pastor We have two versions in the library, and the newer one has also been published online.
On December 21, 2002, the premiere of the text took place at the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre. King Alcohol (with subtitle delirium with puppets and live music in three acts). The play, co-designed and directed by Barbara Bulatović, was not published.
The same applies to the adaptation of the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Enchanted place, which was written by Emil Filipčič together with Barbara Bulatović, also the director of the production. The premiere took place at the Šentjakob Theatre on December 29, 2003.
Also a theatrical version Butnskale, which was created in 2016, has not yet been printed, but is available on our website and in our library.
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VESELJA DOM, A COLLECTION OF FAMILY GAMES
Filipčič gave the game the same title as a collection of three books by Niko Kuret, which was published during World War II (Slovenčeva knjižnica no. 31-33, 1942, the author also used the name Miklavž Kuret). Popular booklets with subtitles Family games and entertainment contain puzzles and instructions for playing board games. The author published a selection from all three books in 1969 under the title Happy hours.
On the inside cover pages, reproductions of the first and last pages of Kuret's book are printed in the theatre sheet. On page 21, verses from the interwar edition are printed as an introduction to the dramatic text.
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Chambery, intimate, homely
Unlike in the author's other plays, where we quickly list ten, twenty, or even thirty people, the cast is chamber. Merry home is therefore a very special text in Filipčič's oeuvre: the relationship between the protagonists is sharp, extremely electrifying. Their isolation allows the author to convincingly transform the partnership into hell on earth. The relationship is burdensome, exhausting, torturous or even hopeless. The miserable existence of the spouses leads to an agreement on joint suicide, which does not happen: in the end, we return resignedly to the beginning.
The dialogues, reminiscent of Ionesco, contain a diverse range of (pop) cultural references. Filipčič also incorporates individual more or less well-known people from the "real" world into Piki's and Poldka's lines (for example, Sonja Heine, Janez Gradišnik, Davorin Sadar, Dragan Živadinov). Even the vulgarity and (verbal) sexuality are in a special way "homegrown": Merry home It doesn't happen just anywhere. It is firmly anchored in Slovenia and embedded in the local scene.
Family games
Family game collection Merry home is synonymous with entertainment and carefree fun. In the circle of family and friends, it is supposed to cheer us up and fill our free time. Filipčič quickly gets over this with joy and immerses himself in irony. The usual elation, characteristic of the dialogues of most of his dramatic texts, is more short-lived in this text. Although Filipčič's "family play" is dominated by humor, wordplay, absurd dialogues and banter, it goes hand in hand with hopelessness, violence, boredom and suffocating routine.
At first, the couple succumbs to the euphoria of marriage and the desire to constantly photograph happy moments. The initial elation soon turns into arguments, mutual insults, constant threats of divorce, and a painful captivity in convention. Although it is seemingly broken by vulgarity, perversion, and sado-masochistic inserts, the couple begins to be eaten away by nihilism and despair. Without any specific reason, they decide to commit suicide together. Archangel Michael intervenes with a phone call and prevents their poisoning, or hara-kiri. As easily as they decided to commit suicide, they now decide, for completely banal reasons, to continue living with each other.
The law is a war that only seemingly preserves the rules of sport
Sometimes Merry home It resembles a sports game, but the sports fight imperceptibly and quickly turns into a total war in which the participants do not choose the means. The constant fight, a constant in the author's games, is this time almost claustrophobic, limited to the cramped dimensions of a boxing ring. The causes of the war are banal, the course is unpredictable, and the end is a disaster for both sides and brings no one victory.
Gender and social roles, feminism and machismo
Although the wife and husband torment each other fairly equally, the text contains undertones of male (super)power and inequality between the sexes, which is why Piki's promise to Poldka in the last scene sounds ambiguous:
Wife: What are we going to do now?
Husband: Nothing, we'll live as before.
Wife: In one word – formal.
Husband: Exactly like that.
Wife: Only now we'll reverse roles. You'll peel potatoes, you'll rock a plastic baby, you'll sweep and watch the clock, and I'll come home drunk from freedom-loving meetings.
MAYBE: I'm fine with it, as long as the child is happy...