Celje People’s Theatre and Ptuj City Theatre

Collectively Scripted by The Production Creative Team
Director Jernej Lorenci
Dramaturg Matic Starina
Set Designer Branko Hojnik
Costume Designer Belinda Radulović
Composer and Vocal Coach Branko Rožman
Choreographer and Assistant to Director Gregor Luštek
Language Consultant Jože Volk

Cast
Pia Zemljič
Minca Lorenci
Barbara Medvešček
Liza Marija Grašič
Primož Vrhovec
Vojko Belšak
Gregor Zorc
Andrej Murenc

The Learned Ladies after the motifs of The Learned Ladies by Molière is an original ensemble piece toying with social norms in the spirit of Molière. It is an ode to sensuality; it is foreplay, a love act and its aftermath. It was Marquis de Sade who said that the human ear is the most sensitive erogenous zone, which makes talking the most powerful stimulant. Stage events follow this assumption. We see a series of scenes illuminating this subject matter from various perspectives. The characters are split by their views and united by their needs. The production is a path to a union achieved by dry words, puffed up metaphors and bare vulgarity, starting with initial subdued whispers, fleeting touches, all the way to a climatic scream.

The Learned Ladies after the motifs of The Learned Ladies by Molière is an original ensemble project directed by Jernej Lorenci. It is the first of this year’s festival productions that departs from a text and utilises the material which is generated during the process of staging.

In his review for the daily Delo, Peter Rak noted that »at first sight, The Learned Ladies directed by Jernej Lorenci does not have much in common with Molière’s comedy. […] Nevertheless, the production revolves around detecting identical anomalies manifested today completely differently, and yet remaining almost unchanged in their essence. These include superficial knowledge, affectation, shallow erudition, the idolatry of self-proclaimed artists, the intertwining of relevant and pop contents, the contrast between the conservative and the »avant-garde«, weariness, ostentation, exhibitionism … […] By questioning the very point of theatre and art in general, it makes use of a masterful execution of that very doubt to justify its existence.«