About the performance
The Mermaid is a post-drama performance that questions how to establish a stable intimate relationship in today's consumerist and precarious society, take time and patience for others, and raises the question of whom or what we would give our voice to today. Four protagonists, women in their late twenties, face societal expectations regarding their intimate and career lives, as well as often challenging each other as "best friends" on what they expect from friends and partners. From a summer love to a nine-year relationship, The Mermaid explores how rising individualism and competition in the market—both career and intimate—affect our personal lives. If Andersen's Little Mermaid gave her body and voice for a man she fell in love with at first sight, our Mermaid explores the position of the female voice and body today, in the era of neoliberalism, guided by freedom.
Nina Kuclar Stiković
The Mermaid is the second dramatic text in the emerging trilogy of plays, reinterpreting Andersen's fairy tales by young playwright Nina Kuclar Stiković. The first, Deklici, was staged in April 2023 at Glej Theatre.
The development of the dramatic text The Mermaid was supported by the Ministry of Culture as part of funding for the young author's oeuvre.
The director about the performance
From the greatest pain a product or mermaids on the free market
Even Andersen's little mermaid uses her voice as payment for a service. She and the witch make a contract with clear terms, which the little girl ponders: "If you take my voice away," asks the little mermaid, "what's left for me?" "A beautiful figure, an easy gait and eloquent eyes that will surely captivate a man's heart," replies the witch, exchanging the girl's voice for a body that will be available to the (male) gaze. Does the girl accept this bargain because she sees no other option? How would she decide if there were more possible offers? If she were free to choose from an endless (free!) market of reasons for losing her voice? Let alone if the market of princes and princesses had also increased and if the girl had managed to plug herself into that market too!
These questions are confronted in the production through an equally rich choice of staging codes or approaches. The story is staged now through multimedia, now through direct performance, sometimes with distance, sometimes with expressive contact, realistic and stylized or subdued. Through accentuated images, accentuated movement and accentuated words. The market of voices, work, bodies, attitudes, emotions is joined by the market of performance principles, the market of various "theatres".
Jure Srdinšek
About the author
Nina Kuclar Stiković was born in Ljubljana in 1996. In April 2024 she graduated from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana with a Master's degree in Dramaturgy and Performing Arts. During her studies she started working in Slovenian theatre as a dramaturg and playwright. To date, six of her original plays have been presented or published, both short plays and full-length works, in which she combines traditional dramatic dialogue with a relaxed, free style. In her texts, she often deals with the problems of her generation. In 2021, her play Skupaj sami ali jutri je v sanjah izgledal drugače was staged at the Slovene National Theatre Maribor under the direction of Nejc Gazvoda, for which she received the award for Best Young Playwright at the 51st Slovenian Drama Week. The play Jutri je v sanjah izgledal drugače was selected as a graduation reading for the subject History and Theory of Theatre and Film at the 2023 graduation exam at art high schools. In April 2023, her second full-length play, deklici, directed by Bor Ravbar, was premiered at the Glej Theatre in Ljubljana. The play deklici was nominated for the Slavko Grum Award at the 53rd Slovenian Drama Week. In September 2023, she participated as the playwright and dramaturge in the production of Elena Ferrante's play Lažljivi život odraslih at the Belgrade Drama Theatre, directed by Sebastijan Horvat. In June 2024, at the 59th Maribor Theatre Festival, she appeared as a performer in the international co-production Konec sveta v treh dejanjih, directed by Selma Spahić. Nina also works as a mentor of playwriting workshops, she led the drama workshop Mladi vzkrik as part of the programme Mladi zmaji and the workshop Misli mojih besed at the 54th Slovenian Drama Week.
About the director
Jure Srdinšek is finishing his undergraduate studies in Theatre Directing at AGRFT. During his studies, he worked as a director on, among others, Učne ure (2023), Razdejani (2023) and his graduation play based on Simona Semenič's text medtem ko skoraj rečem še ali prilika o vladarju in modrosti (2024). Since 2021 he has been a member of the editorial board of the student magazine Adept. As an assistant director, he worked on Avgust v okrožju Osage (MGL, 2021) and Pasji sin (SNG Drama Ljubljana, 2022). He has also co-created reading productions of contemporary Slovenian drama, including Delo in deklica I-V: drame tlačank by Nika Švab (2021), Zamrzovanje by Mance Lipoglavšek (2022), deklici by Nina Kuclar Stiković (2023), Prva beseda je mama by Tjaša Mislej (2024).
