STA, 14 November 2021 - Škofja Loka Passion Play staged by the Prešeren Theatre Kranj and directed by Jernej Lorenci received the Šeligo Prize for the best production at the 51st Week of Slovenian Drama, while also receiving the audience's choice award and the awards for actors, as the festival concluded in Kranj on Saturday evening.
The play produced in cooperation with the Ptuj City Theatre "translates historical sediments and weight of the biblical tradition, which envelops the first Slovenian dramatic text, into a modern, pulsating material that actually puts words into flesh."
The jury added that the play "sets the content of the theatrical event into suffering bodies, which present the canonic story in an original stage language," and that its "suggestiveness and intensity leaves a deep imprint into the collective audience body."
Doroteja Nadrah and Blažu Setnikar, who are part of the line-up in the modern interpretation of the the oldest play in Slovenian, received the awards for the best female and male actors at the festival, conferred for the first time this year.
Škofja Loka Passion Play also convinced the audience, which was able to see eight plays in the competition and accompanying programme, as the production received the audience's choice award.
The other three plays that had been selected to be part of the programme of the main festival featuring productions of Slovenian plays, could not be staged due to production difficulties.
"We are in dark, bleak times, but we have opened up and you have come. I would also confer one award to the audience. Come again," director Lorenci said as he addressed the audience at the closing ceremony.
The special award of the Week of Slovenian Drama, which was also conferred for the first time, went to The Game, a migrant-themed play directed by Žiga Divjak and produced by the Slovenian Youth Theatre and the Maska Ljubljana institute.
Based on testimonies from the Border Violence Monitoring Network database, the play earned the award for the social sensitivity of the performance. "The play does not take place in fictional worlds, but speaks about an actual issue."
Jure Novak, the director of the Prešeren Theatre Kranj, noted that the next, 52nd Week of Slovenian Drama, was expected to start, as is tradition, on 27 March, on World Theatre Day.
