From the exhibition catalogue:
In Trieste, the Trieste that means the lungs of Slovenia, if we consider Ljubljana as its heart, as Ivan Cankar wrote, the Dramatic Society was founded on 8 March 1902. Just a few weeks later, on 27 April to be precise, the first performance in the Slovene language was prepared: Rudolf Hahn's farce The Shoemaker Baron. In 1905, Slovene theatrical life settled in the National Hall, which was burned down by the fascists on 13 July 1920. With this barbaric act, Slovene theatrical creation was banished from Trieste for a quarter of a century.
On May 1, 1945, the partisans marched into Trieste, and with them the acting group of the IX Corps, led by Danilo Turk – Joco. Jernejeva pravica, the first premiere in liberated Trieste, re-established Slovenian professional theatre on December 2, 1945. In the first two decades of its operation, from the 1945/46 season to the 1964/65 season, 169 independent performances were staged in a wide variety of locations in 7,300 days of planning. It was not until December 5, 1964, with the opening of the Cultural Center in Petronijeva Street, that the Slovenes of Trieste once again gained their own space for cultural activity. The first premiere performance of Bratko Kreft's Po brezkončni poti took place at this location on December 12, 1964.
These historical facts may seem dry and cannot convey the powerful, almost irrational enthusiasm that repeatedly drove Slovenian theatre creators in the Trieste region to hold up a mirror to the world and thus to themselves. After World War II, a whole galaxy of top Slovenian theatre creators proved the vitality of local theatre life in Trieste and, despite the constant pressure from a foreign, hostile environment, maintained the spiritual awareness that Trieste was part of the Slovenian national body. Up until this day, when unbearable financial conditions are once again threatening the Slovenian Permanent Theatre in Trieste, Slovenian artists have repeatedly confirmed the words that Oton Župančič wrote in his memorial at the premiere of Jernej's Right in December 1945: Be comrades on the soil of Trieste with the Slovenian word, experts in the peaceful competition between people of different races in the fight for those goals, for the truth and justice that the servant Jernej seeks.
The 'experts' of cooperation between two different nations and cultures have endured for an entire century, and so they are entering the new century, full of unknowns, full of expectations and hopes.
Ivo Svetina
Catalog editors: Bogomila Kravos, Francka Slivnik, Ivo Svetina
Translation into Italian: Bogomila Kravos, Martina Ozbolt