Bidovec-Tomažič: Comradeship

About the performance

The production was created as a collaboration of the Slovene Permanent Theatre in Trieste, the Heroes of Bazovica/Basovizza Committee at the Slovene National and Study Library in Trieste (on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the First Trial of Trieste) and the committee of the Vsezdržavno Združenje Partizanov Italije – Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia (VZPI-ANPI) commemorating Pinko Tomažič and his comrades (on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Second Trial of Trieste).

The forest of Bazovica/Basovizza and the shooting ground of Opčine/Opicina have become a symbol of a particular time, the historical facts and ideals of young people who believe in change even in critical, extremely unfavourable times. These young people took responsibility for change and put the community’s interest before their own. Ferdo Bidovec and Pinko Tomažič are the emblematic examples of this political and ideological enthusiasm. On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the heroes of Bazovica/Basovizza and the 80th anniversary of the heroes of Opčine/Opicina, their personalities became the material for a chamber theatre production, created by a young artistic team. The idea that guided the author and director of the production, Patrizia Jurinčič Finžgar, was primarily the desire to research the border between the hero and the human. The truth is far more complex than any superficial reading, cataloguing, instrumentalisation. Far too often, we see these characters as monuments. However, a deeper understanding of their human side would turn them into role models, the carriers of fundamental values, fighters for a world more just than we would need today in the changed circumstances, in a different kind of crisis.

"The director solved the dilemma of how to organise the extensive historical period and the ‘scattered’ archival materials into a one-hour long artistic experience rather than a school lesson by focusing on the human profile of the protagonists, their most intimate dilemmas as well as those they dared to say out loud […]. The audience at the première rewarded the efforts of both actors and the entire team with truly long applause. The convincing interpretation onstage touched many, and now and then, a glimpse of an eye that welled up could be seen above the masks." (Poljanka Dolhar, Primorski dnevnik, 15 September 2020) 

Première: 13. 9. 2020

The performance is 55 minutes long and has no interval.

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