The Drama Observatory Zenith

The Slovenian Youth Theatre, Cosmokinetical Theatre Red Pilot, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1992
Author: Dragan Zhivadinov
Directed by Dragan Zhivadinov, Red Pilot

about the production

During the last fifteen years the Slovenian Theatre "Mladinsko" has been at the very top of Slovene and ex-Yugoslav theatre scene. With tour new productions and more than 200 performances a year, the Slovenian Theatre Mladinsko produced projects based on plays and works of authors like Aischilos, Euripides, W. Shakespeare, J. B. Molière, A. E. Poe, T.S. Eliot, L. Carroll, J. Genet, R. Queneau, U. Betti, Danilo Kiš and P. Weiss, and the leading Yugoslav as well as some foreign directors and other theatre artists. With its performances it constantly participated with great success al! the most important theatre festivals and events in Slovenia and ex-Yugoslav countries and received dozens of Grand Prix Awards. In addition, the Slovenian Theatre Mladinsko has toured Europe, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Mexico and South America.

With its performances the Mladinsko Theatre wants to show to its audiences the world of dreams and aspirations, a parallel world which cannot be touched by vampire- like ideologies, economics and technologies. The Slovenian Theatre Mladinsko is giving the message to the people that the world of art and theatre is the only world in which they can see their own future as a space where Utopia, dreams, wishes and aspirations can come true.

The Drama Observatory Zenith is the universal scenography of the Cosmokinetic Theatre Red Pilot, a constitutive part of the Neue Slovenische Kunst post-avangarde movement. The performance by Dragan Živadinov and actors of Theatre Mladinsko visualizes the mixture of fragments of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and provocative pictures of Nazi and Stalinist terror. It creates the symbolic and unpredictable picture shocking the audience and resu/ting in the unusual catharsis. The Observatory is not Destroying; the Observatory is but observing the Disintegration. The critics who have seen the performance stated: "Zenith is a theatre one can recommend to one ·s enemies."

"The wild group, the provocation that reaches the innermost places of our ego. The controntation we need in the world that is everything but good and peaceful not a "sensation." (Kurier)

Editors

creators

scenography and directed by Dragan Živadinov, Red Pilot
music: De-Stroj Tank
construction: Jože Zaje
dramaturgy: Vladimir Stoisavljevic
costumes: Breda Kralj
masks: Aljana Hajdinjak
light: Igor Berginc
biomechanic: Matjaž Faric
cast: Pavle Ravnohrib, Olga Kacjan, Mina Jeraj, Sandi Pavlin, Niko Goršic, Damjana Černe, Jadranka Tomažic, Ivan Rupnik, Uroš Macek, Maruša Oblak-Damjana Garšic