Director:
Robert Waltl

Puppets and stage designer:
Robert Smolik

Music:
Noreia

Actor:
Tadej Pišek

Musicians:
Ana Novak
Robert Bone
Anej Ivanuša

Premiere:
25th december 2019

Family performance for audience from 4 y/o.

About the performance

The play, directed by Robert Waltl, features actor Tadej Pišek and musicians from the Noreia band - Ana Novak, Anej Ivanusha and Robert Bone, the band also composed the music for the show and songs based on songs written by Niko Grafenauer.

From the Karlovac or Written Doors and the Padava Tower through the Water Gate, the Shoemaker's Bridge, the German Gate, the Duke's Palace, the Turkish Estate, the Vicedom Palace, the Capuchin Church, Rotovž all the way to the Franciscan Church and Monastery, the Kloštr or Poljansko Gate to the Šempeter Suburbs and the Jewish Quarter.

The focus is on Ljubljana in the 16th century, when medieval life in the city was very turbulent and dynamic.  Catholics, Protestants, and Jews lived more or less in unity here, and the Turks repeatedly besieged the city. After the marriage with the Spanish princess, Emperor Maximilian II walked through the city on an elephant, and so before Vienna, people in Ljubljana saw the elephant.

Ljubljana was a flourishing port for trading and a center of social life. Medieval Pasijon Games were organized. Italian street puppeteers were also regular in the city. Trubar and his adherents were developing new language and books, Jews gave the town a special liveliness, fraudulent bakes were pumped into the Ljubljanica river, and according to legend, the The Water man, who under the linden tree abducted the beautiful Urška, also lived in Ljubljanica.

Knights trained on the castle hill, where castle ladies also danced, brave St. Yuri fought the dragon and won, he also defeated the rest of the dragons and turned them into the stone for the later Dragon Bridge. The red cock was often noisy; Ljubljana bells rang at the same time and Ljubljana pipers sounded as one. All of them took care of the strong walls with six city gates.

The performance was supported by Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana.

With special thanks to Janez Lombergar, Niko Grafenauer and Brane Vižintin.

Ivan Cankar: Kurent

"All blessings to you, Ljubljana! There are bigger and more beautiful cities in the world - but there is none like you under the sky! Hail, thou queen of joy, thou mother of all sweetness, thou godmother of the most wonderful hours! Right in the midst of all plagues, heavenly wisdom has placed thee, light in the darkness, green grass in the wilderness! Nine times burdened traveller comes and greets thee; when he bids thee farewell, thou hast taken from him eight burdens. The pilgrim marvels and his heart sings: face to face, no sorrow, no evil thoughts; the pilgrim looks: house to house, they laugh kindly, some even wink; the pilgrim listens: word to word, poem to poem, they are all wonderful. So the pilgrim looks and listens and marvels, and his heart is comforted..."