First production
Opening night:
02nd October 2010
Director Mile Korun
Dramaturg Mojca Kranjc
Set & costume designer Janja Korun
Language consultant Barbara Korun
Light designer Milan Podlogar
Assistant director Barbara Korun
Cast:
Branko Šturbej - Štef Anderlič, 53, publican, former musician
Zvezdana Mlakar - Eli Anderlič, 55, née Fijavž, Štef's wife
Aljaž Jovanović - Marko Fijavž, 18, Eli's son, Štef's stepson
Valter Dragan - Tom Roblek, 44, Štef’s brother-in-law, floor tiler
Maja Končar - Marta Fijavž Roblek – Martika, 46, teacher, Tom's wife, Eli's younger sister
Saša Tabaković - Robi Roblek, 19, Tom’s and Marta’s son, nearly a fresher
Marijana Brecelj - Agata Jurkovič – Jurkovička, 62, widow, judge, Eli's older sister
Nataša Barbara Gračner - Sandra Režek, between 24 and 34, waitress
Janez Škof - Ivek, 66, drunk
Tanja Martinuzzi k.g. - Ivek's mother
Ivo Ban - Rudi Markelj, police station commander due to retire
Marko Okorn - Škofic, whose Venetian stone flooring has cracked
Klemen Slakonja - Tičo
Nina Ivanišin - Mojca
Andrej Nahtigal - The late Južek
Gregor Baković - The late Frenki
The play “Totenbirt" by Ivo Prijatelj (“Totenbirt” means a pub near the churchyard, where people gather for a funeral reception in honour of the deceased. The same word is used for the proprietor of the pub; the word is dialect, it literally means a publican of the dead.) starts in medias res, in the middle of a craftsman’s regular day, in the pub near the church—a place where both business and existential questions are hashed out. Family relations and business go hand in hand in this community; the pub hosts generational conflicts, midlife crises and stories of friendship and love. Cruel materialism and the fight for survival don’t leave room for a poetic path through life. Nevertheless, the author offers an escape into a transcendent world where old traumas might finally be solved. The authentic, everyday spoken language of Slovene semi-urban life and a narrative based on folk wisdom and contemporary issues are complemented by a uniquely poetic approach which offers a bridge between realism and symbolism in this play.