Ensemble project

The Learned Ladies after the motifs of the Learned Ladies by Molière

Photo: Jaka Babnik

Celje People’s Theatre and Ptuj City Theatre

Première: 18. 9. 2015, Celje People’s Theatre; 12. 10. 2015, Ptuj City Theatre
Running time 1 hour 50 minutes. No interval.

Authors of text ensemble
Director Jernej Lorenci
Dramaturg Matic Starina
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Composer Branko Rožman
Choreographer and assistant to director Gregor Luštek
Language consultant Jože Volk

Cast
Pia Zemljič, Minca Lorenci, Barbara Medvešček, Liza Marija Grašič, Primož Vrhovec as guest, Vojko Belšak, Gregor Zorc, Andrej Murenc

The project is based on Molière’s comedy The Learned Ladies, which is the starting point for the production’s authors to explore the issue of sexuality now and here. They are dealing with the schism between spirituality (wisdom) and love/sexuality; between the "higher ground” and the earthly, the vulgar, the obsolete. Between a woman with brains who lives a full-fledged life and a woman-slave to love, children, husband. The production expands the subject in order to question why sexuality has a negative connotation still to this day. It questions its position in everyday life, in the media and in the bedroom. Why is there such a rift between those fields? Why does the public sphere need to hide from us that which is life-giving, which is not destructive, but in turn is a creation in its purest sense, a live artistic act that doesn’t need an audience? At present, as the media keeps bombarding us with images of violence, with lies, with "the evilness” of human nature, at a time when the black chronicle is the morning pleasure with coffee, the act of love is still taboo.

"In spite of the light-hearted opening and some comical episodes the production unfolds as a highly subtle theatrical study torn between travesty and grotesque, with a strongly emphasised authentic emotional and lyrical component. /…/ The production questions the sense of theatre and art in general, yet through a masterful delivery of that very doubt it justifies its own existence.”

Peter Rak, Delo, 29 October 2015