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Maja Šorli

A Taste You Haven’t Tried Before

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Director Nina Šorak

Drama
World premiere
The Grum Award for Best New Slovenian Play 2021

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Maja Šorli works as a counsellor, pedagogue, playwright and dramaturg. She graduated in psychology at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and obtained her PhD in dramaturgy at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. In 2021, her debut play A Taste You Haven’t Tried Before won the Grum Award for Best New Slovenian play.
Students at the Faculty of Practical Humanities and Social Sciences are protesting because they feel neglected by the university. They advocate education as a fundamental right, accessible to all, and want to make their voices heard against the privatisation, sell-out and commercialisation of education. The dean of the faculty wants to silence them at all costs, and also puts pressure on professors who disagree with her in their fear of privatisation. The government is planning to give their state-run faculty to a private university with a concession, turning it into a fee-paying university and increase the staff teaching load and deteriorate working conditions.
The social context of the sell-out, privatisation, commercialisation of public education and precarisation of the teaching profession is intertwined with the intimate stories of the protagonists. Private lives of associate professor Doroteja Luna Kovač and assistant professor Ivona Kalisch are in shambles. Doroteja Kovač has been accused of sexual harassment. The accusations are vague, they were not made by the victim, but by a third party. The problem of abuse of power in higher education has devastating consequences. The author does not minimize the problem of sexual harassment with vague accusations, but rather builds on it. What happens when accusations of overstepping the pedagogical elation are used by someone to achieve their own ends, to discredit an individual? At the very moment when she is ready to start a new chapter in her life, Ivona Kalisch is abandoned by her long-term partner. Both professors are thus at a breaking point.
In the play, the social context of the dismantling of public education is intertwined with the most intimate questions of the individual – why endure in a relationship, what is love, what it means to belong, why choose a family. Do intimate losses have impact on social activism? The title A Taste You Haven’t Tried Before refers to an intimate level that resonates strongly throughout the play, as characters in the midst of social change are defined primarily by their intimate world. Intricately written dialogues in a contemporary, vivid language create full-blooded dramatis personae. Maja Šorli skilfully captures the broader social context of the collapse of a world, which is also reflected in one’s intimacy. At the same time, she is aware that our rights are not won forever, and must be constantly fought for, endorsed and expanded. 

The problem of abuse of power in higher education has devastating consequences.

 

 

Director Nina Šorak
Dramaturgs Tin Grabnar, Rok Andres
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Tina Pavlović
Composer Laren Polič Zdravič 
Video designer Vesna Krebs
Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak
Language consultant Živa Čebulj
Assistant to costume designer Zala Žagar

Cast
Dean of the faculty Metoda Priester Manca Ogorevc
Rafael Blažin Branko Završan
Ivona Kalisch Tanja Potočnik
Doroteja Luna Kovač Barbara Medvešček
Peter Studen Damjan M. Trbovc
Theodor Schneider Urban Kuntarič 
Eva Vode Lucija Harum
Colleague David Čeh

Opening 19 May 2023

Stage manager Zvezdana Štrakl • Prompter Breda Dekleva • Lighting master Dan Pavljak • Video projection and sound master Mitja Švener • Property master Roman Grdina • Front-of-house Đorđe Dimitrijević • Make-up artists Marjana Sumrak, Andreja Veselak Pavlič • Wardrobe masters Suzana Pučnik, Maja Zimšek • Tailor Anita Kragelj • Seamstress Ivica Vodovnik • Head of construction Gregor Prah • Technical manager Aleksandra Štern • Assistant technical manager Rajnhold Jelen 

  • David Čeh, Manca Ogorevc, Branko Završan, Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik

  • Manca Ogorevc, Branko Završan, Barbara Medvešček, David Čeh,Tanja Potočnik

  • Manca Ogorevc, Damjan M. Trbovc

  • Barbara Medvešček, Manca Ogorevc, Branko Završan, Urban Kuntarič, Tanja Potočnik

  • Tanja Potočnik, Urban Kuntarič

  • Urban Kuntarič, Tanja Potočnik

  • Lucija Harum, Barbara Medvešček, Manca Ogorevc, Tanja Potočnik

  • Tanja Potočnik

  • Tanja Potočnik

  • Damjan M. Trbovc, Manca Ogorevc

  • Lucija Harum, Manca Ogorevc, Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik

  • David Čeh, Manca Ogorevc, Branko Završan

  • Lucija Harum, David Čeh, Manca Ogorevc, Branko Završan, Tanja Potočnik,

  • Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik

  • Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik

  • Tanja Potočnik, Barbara Medvešček

  • Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik, Branko Završan

  • Barbara Medvešček, Tanja Potočnik, Branko Završan

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