LJUDSKA IGRA (prizor iz kmečkega življenja)
ŠTEVILO OSEB: 6 (2ž 4m)
KRAJ IN ČAS DOGAJANJA: Kmečka hiša v slovenski vasi v osemdesetih letih 19. stoletja.
Besedilo je bilo natisnjeno v Koledarju Družbe sv. Mohorja za navadno leto 1891, ki ga hranimo v Slovenskem gledališkem inštitutu pod signaturo K 1796.
IZ GRAJSKIH SOBAN V KMEČKO IZBO
Vošnjak je v uvodni opombi k igri pojasnil, da je že leta 1889 napisal igro z istim naslovom, ki pa ni pripravna, da bi se predstavljala pri onih narodnih veselicah na kmetih, kjer nimajo izurjenih predstavljalcev…(str. 41). Besedilo je poenostavil tudi s tem, ko je število nastopajočih skrčil iz osem na šest.
»Salonska igra« To their own se mu ni zdela primerna za preproste ljudi zato jo je prilagodil podeželskim izvajalcem in publiki. Če igri primerjamo, ugotovimo, da je ohranil le osnovni zaplet (dekle in dva snubca) in prvotni konflikt (dobri Slovenci proti nepoštenemu in zahrbtnemu nemškutarju), vse drugo pa je napisal na novo.
Game To their own iz leta 1889 je dramatizacija političnega gesla Vse za narod, omiko in svobodo, v novejši različici pa je poudarek predvsem na krščanskih vrednotah in šele potem na slovenstvu. Negativni snubec tokrat sicer zaničuje Slovence in daje prednost vsemu nemškemu pred avstrijskim, a je obenem brezbožnež, ki za nameček ne hodi v cerkev. V besedilu je izrečena tudi eksplicitna podpora Družbi sv. Mohorja:
Toliko lepih knjig je spet podarila, da bomo čitali celo zimo. Bog jo nam ohrani v blagor narodu. (str. 43)
Namesto slovesnosti ob odprtju Vodnikovega spomenika se dogajanje vrti okoli ustanovitve podružnice Družbe sv. Cirila in Metoda, ki skrbi, da ohranimo katoliško vero in svojo narodnost. (str. 44)
Josip Vošnjak (1834-1911), a writer and physician, was one of the most prominent Slovenian politicians and cultural workers of the second half of the 19th century. In 1867, he was elected as a deputy to the Styrian Provincial Assembly, where in the following decade he advocated for linguistic equality and a United Slovenia, as well as for Slovenian territorial and administrative unity. From 1873 to 1885, he was a deputy to the National Assembly in Vienna, and from 1877 until his retirement (1895) he was a deputy to the Carniolan Provincial Assembly. As a leading politician of the Slovenian Liberal Party, he advocated the importance of education and Slovenian economic independence; he participated in the establishment of domestic banks and cooperatives. As a politician and publicist, he advocated for the improvement of the unbearable social conditions of the peasant and working-class population. He was among the founders of the Slovenska matica (1864) and the newspaper Slovenski narod (1868). He wrote articles for it on the economy, finance, politics, social and medical issues, and also on culture. He also published professional and literary contributions in Slovenski gospodarje, Ljubljanski zvon, in publications of the Mohorjeva družba and elsewhere. In the late 1960s, he successfully performed at Slovenian camps, and later he actively participated in raising funds and erecting monuments to important Slovenians, in the establishment of the Glasbena matica, the Cyril-Methodov družstva and the Pisateljsk družstva. As a member of the Dramatic Society, he helped in the creation and development of Slovenian theatre.
Vošnjak's first dramatic attempt in German, which he also staged, dates back to his student years. After completing his medical studies in Vienna, he returned to his native land, switched from German to Slovenian in his writing, and wrote a tragedy in verse, which has not survived. Vošnjak's early literary attempts and publications, encouraged by his friend and colleague Josip Jurčič, were interrupted by a steep political career. He took up writing again when he completed his second term in the National Assembly, i.e. after his fiftieth birthday. Literary historians note that during this time he completed previously conceived or planned texts, including the novel Twins (1889) and numerous dramatic works that he submitted to the Dramatic Society a few months after the novel's publication. For these texts, which in terms of form and content belong more to the 1870s, France Koblar used the term "late reading drama" (Slovenian Drama I, 1972, p. 139). Vošnjak, who after 1885 set about working for the Slovenian theatre with all his energy and diligence, wrote these texts for the small, cramped stage of the Ljubljana reading room, which was revived in the years after the fire of the Estates Theatre and before the construction of the new theatre building (1887 – 1892), so that it must be written in his defense that his drama is not "late reading room" only in the sense of content and form, but is literally reading room. When the opportunity finally arose for the Slovenes to get their own theatre, Vošnjak actively participated in this project as a councilor in the Carniolan Provincial Assembly and treasurer of the Dramatic Society. As a young politician, he attended the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1868 and appeared as a speaker, and at the age of almost sixty, he also lived to see the opening of his home theatre.
Vošnjak, who participated in discussions about the repertoire conundrums of Slovenian theatre during this period, also tried to solve them with his own dramatic texts: he offered the Dramatic Society five mostly lighter texts or comedies. Foam, To their own and Minister's letter were also staged this year, comedies A hundred years ago and Women's victory but they failed to make it to the stage during this period.
The next type of Vošnjak's plays is closely related to his attempts at a Tolstoyan story with material from the lives of ordinary people with directly expressed moral teachings (Condemned, You father to the threshold, your son across the threshold, Two neighbors, Blessed are the merciful...). He developed his version of Mohorian literature not only in prose experiments, but also in drama. Thus, a rural version of the bourgeois play was created. To their own, which he published in the Calendar of the Society of St. Mohor (1891). This also includes two texts that were published in the book collection Slovenske večernice Sodružbe sv. Mohorje. Game Walnut, subtitled Scenes from Farm Life, was published in volume 45 (1991), a short story in one act Let's not give up! and in volume 53 (1901).
The third set of Vošnjak's dramatic works and his literary peak are represented by the plays Beautiful Vida (book edition and performance 1893) and Doctor Dragan (1894), which was not performed at the time of its creation due to problematic content. Compared to earlier texts, these are works that are complex in content and form, characterized by more contemporary tones and motifs, although they remain trapped in melodramatic sentimentality and euphemism.
During this time, they put on stage Coal mine (1994), a less successful and accomplished work, according to literary history, depicting a strike in a coal mine.
With their contemporary content and complexly drawn characters, the aforementioned Vošnjak plays indicated the rapprochement of Slovenian dramatic literature with modern European literary trends, a rapprochement that was only fully realized by Ivan Cankar.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE SLOVENIAN THEATRE INSTITUTE: VOŠNJAK'S WORKS IN BOOK EDITIONS AND A SELECTION OF MATERIALS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 1889, a one-act play was published To each their own. In the same year, as the first booklet of the Vošnjaks Collected dramatic and narrative writings published novel Twins, printed in the National Printing House in Ljubljana. Of the planned five volumes, only three were published. The other two were printed by the Celje printing house of Dragotin Hribar, the former manager of the National Printing House in Ljubljana. Drama Beautiful Vida was published in 1893, Doctor Dragan and a year later.
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Singing game Coal miner It was never fully printed. France Koblar included the work in an anthology Older Slovenian drama (1951). He decided to publish the second act; he merely summarized the other three.
In the last years of his life, Vošnjak published Memories in two volumes (1905, 1906). The work was republished in 1982 by Slovenska matica. The selection was made by historian Vasilij Melik, who is also the author of the accompanying study.
The first and only volume of the book collection Slovenska meščanska dramatika was published in 1996. The editor and writer of the foreword, Igor Grdina, decided to publish Vošnjak's Doctor Dragan and Matches Anton Funtek.
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Vošnjak's dramatic work was discussed by Frank Wollman in the book Slovenian drama (1925) and France Koblar in Slovenian playwrights (1972). It also has an important place in Dušan Moravec's monograph Townspeople in Slovenian drama (1960).
Dušan Moravec also published an extensive analysis of Vošnjak's drama in issue 43 of Documents of the Slovenian Theatre Museum (1984).
The most comprehensive overview of Vošnjak's literary, political, and cultural activities is the monograph by Malina Schmidt Snoj, published in the book collection Znameniti Slovenci pri Nova revija (2003).
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Vaškemu županu Podlipniku mladi sosed Jože po župnikovemu naročilu izroči vabilo Ciril Metodove družbe za ustanovitev podružnice. Podlipnik omahuje ali naj dokument podpiše ali ne, ker se bo vsa odgovornost zgrnila nanj, mladenič pa ga ves navdušen prepriča:
V štirinajstih dneh bode shod in prišli bodo, to vem, od blizu in daleč, kar je poštenih mož naše vere in krvi. Oj to bode veselje, ko nas bode zbranih na stotine, vsi jedne misli, jednega srca, vsi vneti za vero, dom, cesarja. (str. 42)
Jože bi se rad oženil s Podlipnikovo hčerko. Županu je mladi sosed všeč, vendar je tudi v tem primeru omahljiv in negotov: mati županja se je namreč ogrela za vaškega štacunarja Jurija Kričača in vztraja, da bo on hčerkin ženin, čeprav je deklici všeč Jože in Kričača sploh ne mara.
Župan se odloči, da bo z zvijačo preizkusil oba snubca. Doto hrani na hranilni knjižici. Ko razglasi, da je bila knjižica ukradena, se hinavsko leporečni štacunar takoj umakne, sosedu Jožetu pa sploh ni mar za denar in tudi ko župan razkrije svojo spletko, se mu hoče odpovedati. V dekle se je zaljubil zaradi njene pobožnosti, čistega srca ter marljivosti in vse te lastnosti so vredne več kot kupi zlata.
Spodobi se, da so zaključne besede županove:
Po poroki pa ustanovimo podružnico sv. Cirila in Metoda. Naj nam preté, užugali nas ne bodo. Nepremagljivi smo, dokler se držimo starega gesla: Vse za vero, dom cesarja, in trdno stojmo, kakor nas je Bog postavil: Svoji k svojim! (str. 47)