DRAMA (folk play in five acts)
NUMBER OF PERSONS: 24 (4 women 20 men) and "farmers" or "wedding guests"
PLACE AND TIME OF EVENT: "semi-past tense" in Dolenjska
Fran Govekar kept the same scenes in his dramatization of the prose model as in the novel. Tenth brother described by Josip Jurčič. The events take place in neighboring castles, in Slemenice and Polesek (Kravjek and Mačerole in Leščevje nad Muljavo), in the Muljava inn near Obrščak, and in a modest farmhouse in the Muljava area. Jurčič's novel was published in 1866. The writer also drew material from his own experiences at a castle near his birthplace, where during his summer vacations – two years before the novel's publication – he taught the lord's daughter as a poor student.
The first edition from 1901 is available in digital form at the National and University Library.
We decided to publish the second, revised edition online (1913, printed and published by the Dragotin Hribar printing house, Ljubljana).
Tenth brother is – after success with Wrestlers – Govekar's second dramatization. This time too, he drew material from Jurčič's rich legacy. In both cases, as well as in the next two folk educational plays he wrote, he simultaneously prepared book editions of the plays while they were being performed.
The premiere of the first performance was on February 27, 1901, directed by Anton Verovšek, who this time played Krjavlje. The first surviving flyer invited to one of the many repeats, which was on November 15, 1901.
Tenth brother became a hit, which was staged again and again and also re-staged. In Ljubljana before the First World War, it was directed by Hinko Nučič and Josip Povhe, in addition to Verovšek. In Verovšek's new production, which premiered on 7 January 1909, the role of Martin Spak's tenth brother was played for the first time on the stage of the Ljubljana professional theatre by the famous actor Milan Skrbinšek, who became a member of the Ljubljana drama ensemble in the autumn of the same year.
Govekar's dramatization The tenth brother delighted audiences in Trieste the following season and remained in the repertoire until the fascist ban on theatrical productions in Slovene. It was directed by, among others, Anton Verovšek, Avgusta Danilova, Marij Sila and Milan Skrbinšek (1918/19), who also transferred it to the newly founded Maribor Theatre (1920/21).
Writer, editor and translator Fran Govekar (1871 – 1949) after completing his studies in Vienna, worked as a publicist and later as a magistral clerk. He also lived to see his retirement from the City Hall in 1931 as a senior magistral councilor. Throughout all periods of his writing and professional career, he was intensely devoted to the theatre: he wrote plays, translated drama texts, was secretary of the Dramatic Society and the Ljubljana Theatre, intendant and theatre director. After the First World War, he was a co-founder and member of the board of directors of the Slovenian Theatre Consortium.
Govekar began publishing short stories during his student years, influenced by naturalistic literary models. The pinnacle of his prose work is the novel In the blood (1896). At the same time, his plays were also being created, which he initially designed with more traditional approaches; in his mature period, the "educational" spectacles with singing were succeeded by more ambitious writing, closer to his prose (dramas Cramp and Twilight).
ANTON VEROVŠEK – THE HERO OF GOVEKAR'S FOLK GAMES
The success of Govekar's dramatizations is closely linked to the humorous performances of Anton Verovšek, who in his plays played out the various registers of the simple Slovenian man, laughing, crying and loudly singing melodies. The famous interpreter of Govekar's folk heroes is in Wrestling portrayed the drunken farmer Blaž Mozol, in To the tenth brother the village specialty Krjavlje, in Legionnaires tailor Boštjan Jež and finally the heroic Martin Krpan in the stage production of Levstik's story of the same name.
The action begins in the park of the Slemenička manor, first with singing in the background, and then with a love scene between the manor's daughter Manica and the local teacher Lovro Kvas. Their outpourings of love are also heard by the simple village eccentric Martinek Spak and the young Marijan, Manica's fiancé and heir to the neighboring manor. In addition to Marijan's unbridled hatred of his rival Lovro and at the same time of his poor tenth brother Martin, we are also presented with Marijan's lordly arrogance and the class tension that his contempt for the common man causes between him and the two men of peasant origin.
The action continues in the room at Obrščak. The castle and peasants have gathered in the village inn, where they share wisdom, gossip, drink and joke, and explain to the audience what the story is about. At Obrščak we also meet the hut owner Krjavlje, who ensures the authentic folk colors of the language and events.
In the third act, we move to the Polesk castle, where dirty secrets from the past of Dr. Piškav, the Polesk lord, begin to come to light. Martin Spak is his illegitimate son, which Piškav's younger son Marijan does not know. The father is very afraid that in addition to the truth about his paternity, incriminating documents that Martinek has will also come to light, and he uses them to blackmail the lord until he hands over a bag of money.
In the next act, on a plateau in the middle of the forest, the final armed confrontation between the three men from the first act takes place, which, in the absence of the castle lady, is brutal and extremely dramatic. When Marijan mortally wounds Martin, he hits Marijan hard on the head with the butt of his rifle.
While Martin is dying in the nearby Krjavljeva koči, he confides in Kvas that the Polessko manor house owner, Peter Piškav, is actually Dr. Kaves, who poisoned his brother. He also seduced and robbed young Magdalena, Martin's mother, who died in poverty. In addition to other benefits, the miscreant also appropriated a castle for himself through his actions, which could actually belong to Lovro Kvas, since he is actually Piškav's nephew and Martin's and Marijan's cousin.
Kvas leaves the scene with documents proving the lord's guilt. Piškav, who rushes to the cottage after him, is too late: he finds only Martin dead, and the documents have disappeared.
In the last act, we return to Slemenice, where Kvas is accused of wounding Marijan. When the agitated Manica reveals her love for the – wrongly accused – local teacher in front of everyone present, the conditions for a happy ending are not yet met and their relationship seems completely hopeless due to the poor student's financial situation. The problems are resolved by Krjavelj, who informs the audience that Piškav, before shooting himself, entrusted him with a farewell letter. In it, he ordered Marijan to move out of the castle and leave him to Lovro Kvas, who in return should destroy the incriminating letters. The lord of Slemenice immediately gives his daughter's hand to the newly-wed neighboring lord. Despite the dead in the backstage, a wonderful mood develops before the audience, reinforced by a noble drop and exclamations of joy:
"Too bad for Martin, too bad for Piškav, really – may they rest in peace! But life must go on bravely beyond the grave, and you, my friend, are now a lord – a rich gentleman! God bless you!" (Tenth brother, 1st edition, 1901, p. 87).