Anton Tomaž Linhart
The Merry Day or Matiček’s Wedding
Slovenian National Theatre (SNT) Drama Ljubljana
Crew
Director: Janusz Kica
Dramaturg: Mojca Kranjc
Stage designer: Karin Fritz
Costume designer: Bjanka Adžić Ursulov
Composer: Kyrre Kvam
Lighting designer: Aleš Vrhovec
Language consultant: Arko
Assistant director: Maša Pelko
Cast
Baron Naletel: Marko Mandić
Rozala, Baron's Lady: Polona Juh
Matiček, Manor's Gardener: Gregor Baković
Nežka, Housemaid: Nina Ivanišin
Tonček, Student on Vacation: Nik Škrlec
Zmešnjava, Country Lawyer: Igor Samobor
Žužek, Manor's Scribe: Ivo Ban
Budalo, Scribe's Scribe: Bojan Emeršič
Jerca, Mayor's Daughter: Eva Jesenovec
Jaka, Lackey: Rok Vihar
Gašper, a Worker: Zvone Hribar
Colleen: Sabina Kogovšek
Colleen: Lucija Harum/Mia Skrbinac
About the performance
The Slovenian drama scholar Taras Kermauner, argued that there was no other Slovenian play that was as free-thinking in dealing with the body, sexuality, truth, justice and ethics as Matiček, which makes it a paradigmatic representative of a socio-political libertarianism. "Matiček is a play of radical derision; it is a mockery of everything, including itself."
Distinguished Slovenian philosopher Mladen Dolar claims that Linhart demonstrated his immense spiritual liberty by modelling his play on The Wedding of Figaro (1781) by Beaumarchais: "It is hard to imagine the amount of freedom that preconditioned a selection of such a model, as well as what it took to get ripped out of the parochial Slovenian conditions, as well as of local power and subordination structures. Linhart’s freedom consisted in his acknowledgment that the model of his play,
i.e. the French model, charged with subversive social ideas indicating different times altogether, was relevant here too, in the petty-minded circumstances of the crownland Carniola. Matiček tells our story, a story set in a given historical moment of our own history. The mottos of the play are our mottos, this time is ours, and the tasks it sets are ours. In terms of its universal validity, the model is as Slovenian as it is French, and this is exactly as much as Slovenian identity can
participate in the universal alliance during the historical moment of its time."