Page 117 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 117
Society as Seen in Slovenian Drama during Socialist Times and Today 117
criticism is no longer unanimous, because today’s neoliberal society no
longer has a single centre of power. Because of that, it is impossible to ex-
pect that the audience will respond with a reception similar to the one in
the 1980s, when theatre was considered a social forum and was capable
of establishing a congregation. What is left for drama and theatre is the
question of the point of view or perception of the world.
Here, we need to make a brief digression to the views of Hans-Thies
Lehmann on the politicality of post-dramatic theatre, as it seems that Si-
mona Semenič stems from similar findings. Lehmann detects contempo-
rary society as unsuitable for traditional political theatre, which diagno-
ses social problems and presents alternative social ideas.
There are hardly any visible representatives of legal positions confronting
each other as political opponents any more. What still attains an intuitable
quality, by contrast, is the momentary suspension of normative, legal and po-
litical modes of behaviour, i.e. the plainly non-political terror, anarchy, mad-
ness, despair, laughter, revolt, antisocial behaviour (Lehmann 2009, 175).
This anarchy is also observable in Simona Semenič’s text. The time
and place of events are fractured. Socialism is idealised, but a careful read-
er will not miss that it is bursting at the seams. It begins with a corpse,
Boris does not want to talk about the events in Kosovo, the relationships
between characters are filled with tension (for example, Luka’s mother
Vesna and her husband Darko), disappointments (for example, Boris’s Ja-
goda, who will marry his friend Štef). Besides, idealisation is additional-
ly motivated with the fact that the characters are a child, a teenager and
a young man who, because of their age, look into the world naively and
filled with optimism.
In addition to that, the society from the beginning of the 1980s is
decisively tinted with the decision of the author to sketch the neoliber-
al present as its contrast. The latter does not have a coherent story but is
imparted merely as dream leaps into the present. In this present, charac-
ters find themselves mostly in life crises that show them in a complete-
ly different light. The initial impetus and optimism have been replaced
by confusion, depression and complacence. Even more, Semenič in these
leaps creates more bodies and links them to suicide as the ultimate act of
despair. Srečko, Erik’s youthful friend dies by suicide because of his ho-
mosexual inclinations that he cannot express in a small-town communi-
ty; as does Nada, a mother of two, who was allegedly suffering from de-
pression; as well as Zmago, Boris’s friend, who did not want to work in
Lipa but was even less enthusiastic about being a technological surplus.
criticism is no longer unanimous, because today’s neoliberal society no
longer has a single centre of power. Because of that, it is impossible to ex-
pect that the audience will respond with a reception similar to the one in
the 1980s, when theatre was considered a social forum and was capable
of establishing a congregation. What is left for drama and theatre is the
question of the point of view or perception of the world.
Here, we need to make a brief digression to the views of Hans-Thies
Lehmann on the politicality of post-dramatic theatre, as it seems that Si-
mona Semenič stems from similar findings. Lehmann detects contempo-
rary society as unsuitable for traditional political theatre, which diagno-
ses social problems and presents alternative social ideas.
There are hardly any visible representatives of legal positions confronting
each other as political opponents any more. What still attains an intuitable
quality, by contrast, is the momentary suspension of normative, legal and po-
litical modes of behaviour, i.e. the plainly non-political terror, anarchy, mad-
ness, despair, laughter, revolt, antisocial behaviour (Lehmann 2009, 175).
This anarchy is also observable in Simona Semenič’s text. The time
and place of events are fractured. Socialism is idealised, but a careful read-
er will not miss that it is bursting at the seams. It begins with a corpse,
Boris does not want to talk about the events in Kosovo, the relationships
between characters are filled with tension (for example, Luka’s mother
Vesna and her husband Darko), disappointments (for example, Boris’s Ja-
goda, who will marry his friend Štef). Besides, idealisation is additional-
ly motivated with the fact that the characters are a child, a teenager and
a young man who, because of their age, look into the world naively and
filled with optimism.
In addition to that, the society from the beginning of the 1980s is
decisively tinted with the decision of the author to sketch the neoliber-
al present as its contrast. The latter does not have a coherent story but is
imparted merely as dream leaps into the present. In this present, charac-
ters find themselves mostly in life crises that show them in a complete-
ly different light. The initial impetus and optimism have been replaced
by confusion, depression and complacence. Even more, Semenič in these
leaps creates more bodies and links them to suicide as the ultimate act of
despair. Srečko, Erik’s youthful friend dies by suicide because of his ho-
mosexual inclinations that he cannot express in a small-town communi-
ty; as does Nada, a mother of two, who was allegedly suffering from de-
pression; as well as Zmago, Boris’s friend, who did not want to work in
Lipa but was even less enthusiastic about being a technological surplus.
