Prežihov Voranc
The Self-Sown
Ljubljana City Theatre
Crew
Dramaturg: Simona Hamer
Stage designer: Dani Modrej
Costume designer: Andrej Vrhovnik
Music (partly based on folk music motives): Boštjan Narat
Language consultant: Martin Vrtačnik
Lighting designer: Andrej Koležnik
Musicians on the recording: Jelena Ždrale (violin), Blaž Celarec (drums), Boštjan Narat (guitar, harmonium)
Cast
Meta, And Another Maid: Anja Drnovšek
Ožbej: Jernej Gašperin
Karničnik, Volbenk: Gašper Tič
Karničnica, Another Villager: Judita Zidar
Hudabivnica, Accordion, Another Maid: Mirjam Korbar Žlajpah
Maid, Villager, Violin: Mojca Funkl
Farmhand, Gentleman, Clarinet, Gravedigger: Janez Starina
Another Farmhand, Priest, Catchpole, Witness: Gregor Gruden
About the performance
Original title: Samorastniki
Première: 12 November 2015, Small stage
80 minutes, no interval
The Self-Sown, written in 1937, one of the most recognisable of Voranc’s works, can be easily classified as literature that became a part of the Slovenian collective memory. The love story between Meta and Ožbej, a cottager’s daughter and a landowner’s son, between the members of two different social classes, is actually a story about the struggle of the little man. In its core stands a woman, a single mother, a mother of bastards, as her fellow villagers curse her, whose vacillating lover Ožbej is of no help to her. She is the one carrying the whole burden of social exclusion; she proudly bears the physical torture and humiliation and proudly refuses also the alms. She doesn’t want the estate, as Ožbej’s family wrongly assumes, she only wants to equip her children with a name, the name of their father. Meta’s fight is a rebellious demand for equality. A loud, unrelenting demand which is the only legacy she passes onto her children.
The Self-Sown, worth seeing not only for the excellent script and directing, but also for the convincing cast, costumes and set, should be seen by everyone, particularly primary and secondary school students, so they can confront Voranc’s bitterness more easily. Simona Hamer and Eva Nina Lampič prove that young talented artists should be encouraged, as they’re capable of seeing and showing things in a new, original way. I hope that in the future we can enjoy many of their works.
(Brina Jamnik, KEV’DR