Homer
The Iliad
Photo: Peter Uhan
Slovene National Theatre Drama Ljubljana, Ljubljana City Theatre and Cankarjev dom
Première 24. 1. 2015, Cankarjev dom
Running time 3 hours 10 minutes. One interval.
Original title Ἰλιάς
Director Jernej Lorenci
Translator Anton Sovrè
Authors of adaptation Jernej Lorenci, Matic Starina, Eva Mahkovic
Dramaturgs Eva Mahkovic, Matic Starina
Language consultant Tatjana Stanič
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Composer Branko Rožman
Choreographer Gregor Luštek
Lighting designer Pascal Mérat
Assistant director Gregor Luštek
Assistant set designer Eva Brvar Ravnikar
Cast
Achiles Jure Henigman
Thetis Nina Ivanišin
Paris Aljaž Jovanović
Hephaestus Gregor Luštek
Hector Marko Mandić
Briseis Zvezdana Novaković
Hera Jette Ostan Vejrup
Helen Tina Potočnik
Zeus Matej Puc
Patroclus Blaž Setnikar
Priam Janez Škof
Agamemnon Jernej Šugman
The Iliad is the primordial foundation of Europe. Its beginning. Its first seed, its basic substance, its low start and high goal. The Iliad is the first epic of Europe, a pre-novel, a pre-opera, a pre-spectacle, the first MTV. The Iliad is the basic school reading and the unattainable literary peak. The Iliad is the agony of the school curiculum and the endless point of radical fascination.
Yet, The Iliad is a part of all of us. We all know Zeus and Hera, Athena and Ares, the beautiful Helen and Paris, Agamenmnon and Menelaus, Achilles and Patroclus. Why is it that this oversized and so many times forced upon mega-work is so deeply engrained in the European civilisation? Where does contemporary man’s fascination over this ancient tale come from? What is the reason for admiring the seemingly extinct heroic drives, the heroic love, the fateful grand gestures?
And how is it possible that this great, almost divine literary work has become a canon, a dogma, almost a law, a role model for everything that has followed, when its content is all but a human slaughterhouse? When the fundamental drives of the protagonists of The Iliad are all but envy, greed, lust, vengeance, humiliation drive, the desire to dehumanise and kill?
And where do we find today’s heroes who could be compared to those ancient ones? Brad Pitt as Achilles? Is this a time for heroes and heroic deeds in the first place? Hasn’t the world shrunk to the extent where it needs simple, inconspicuous men who don’t make history but merely life? A temporary, modest, everyday life?
Photo: Peter Uhan
Photo: Peter Uhan
Photo: Peter Uhan
