Petra Tanko on Saint Joan of the Stockyards, “Program Ars”, RTV Slovenija, November 11 2024

Bertolt Brecht: Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Petra Tanko, “Program Ars” on RTV Slovenija, November 11th 2024
https://ars.rtvslo.si/podkast/ocene/173250873/175085936
“The staging of plays, dramas and excerpts by Bertolt Brecht is always a challenge that requires thorough contextualization of the content. The same is true of Saint Joan of the Stockyards, which has never been staged in Slovenian theater, but given the state of affairs in the world, the need for its staging has been felt in the recent period. The staging by the Italian-Slovenian collective ErosAntEros, led by Agata Tomšič and Davide Sacco, is a rigorous stage reading of Brecht, whose spectacular escalation is made possible by the music of Laibach, who set to music Brecht’s songs, which are present throughout his work, and by the varied visual formats that characterize the projections. Joan Dark, the title character played by Agata Tomšič, is a member of the Black Hats musical group. In the name of God, they rescue impoverished workers with songs and soup. At the time of the stock market crash, Joan is also a mediator between the workers and the capitalists and is later expelled for her actions as the group survives on donations from the capitalists. The music and performance, the variety of visual effects, the skillful combination of footage and real-time actions, and a black, white, and red set design without superfluous elements allow for a spectacular expression of the text, which […] is interpreted live by Klemen Kovačič, Ivan Peternelj, Katarina Stegnar, Blaž Šef, and Matija Vastl, as well as by the protagonist and Italian actor Danilo Nigrelli, and the actors featured in the footage. The aesthetic code of the performance thus accommodates multiple spoken and acted languages.”