SLG Celje - A Second Past

Vinko Möderndorfer (born in 1958) is a Slovenian playwright, writer, poet, theatre, film and opera director. He has published more than sixty volumes of fiction, poetry, plays and essays.
His novel A Second Past (2017) is a monumental depiction of events in a small fictional town of Dolina, located in the vicinity of Celje, in the period between 1930 and 1992. In terms of genre, A Second Past is a multi-layered novel, it is a historical novel, a novel of reconciliation, a family saga, a war novel, a political and socially-critical novel, but above all, it is a story of love and the consequences of hatred that can span over several generations.
The crucial event that sets the story in motion happens at the end, »girl meets boy« prompts the author to start mining town history in order to write a love story tainted by the grim past. The novel intertwines the stories of two families, namely the most prominent local Slovenian family and the richest German family that dominated Dolina. Peter, a descendant of the families of Mihael Novak, a Slovenian Germanophile and Lord Mayor, and Otto von Eichhein, a German noble, falls in love with Mojca, a descendant of Mirko Bregar, a communist and Partisan resistance fighter. The lovers are unaware of the blood-stained past and the fatal intertwining of their families. To write their love story the author sets out to explore the past.
Vinko Möderndorfer constructs A Second Past in the same manner as a painter paints a fresco, dispersing many details in various parts of the painting, barely perceptible to the naked eye, and yet significantly contributing to its totality. It is a tiny moment that can change the course of history, and it is the next generations that are capable of reflecting upon the decisive significance of the moment.
In terms of staging, the adaptation aims to preserve the fresco-like appeal of the novel and seeks to construct a performance language for a novel-like fresco by employing a remarkable and powerful stage collective on its journey through the turbulences of history functioning like a well-oiled mechanism with clockwork precision. The staging principle, i.e., the directorial-dramaturgical driving force of the production is montage, the framing of views and voices observing the same event from different perspectives simultaneously, steering the course of history in different directions for them (and us). What ensues is a second past. The only redeeming feature of history is a collective that is eager to remember and talk about it, devoid of any ideological bias.
A Second Past is a story of a past that becomes a second past after individual destinies are juxtaposed and disclosed, it is a story of minor events with major consequences, a story of love that can be a destructive or a saving force. It tells a relatable story of each one of us having »a second past« defining us and determining one’s present; it tells stories uniting into the story of a life.

A story about a past that becomes a second past as people’s destinies are juxtaposed and disclosed; a story of minor events with major consequences.

Stage adaptation by Tatjana Doma, Luka Marcen
Director Luka Marcen
Dramaturg Tatjana Doma
Set designer Sara Slivnik
Costume designer Ana Janc
Composer Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar
Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak
Stage movement Lara Ekar Grlj
Language consultant Živa Čebulj
German language consultant Stefan Oraže

Cast
Oto von Eichhein, Captain Lukas Bilharz, Old Mirko Bregar Branko Završan
Ivan Novak, Partisan Matija Kolenc David Čeh
Mihael Novak, Ivan Novak Jr. Urban Kuntarič
Marija von Eichhein, Clerk in the Archive Lucija Harum
Ana Grabner Barbara Medvešček
Silvester Grabner, Peter Novak Žan Brelih Hatunić
The Dajčman Woman, Young Sonja, Nada Petrović Maša Grošelj
Tončka Kolenc, Marta, Mojca Bregar Eva Stražar
Joško Medved, Machine Gunner Nande Andrej Murenc
Parish priest Franc, Rudi Dojčer Tarek Rashid
Frau Gertrude Lindner, Mrs. Medved, Old Sonja Lučka Počkaj
Young Mirko Bregar, Miroslav Novak Jakob Šfiligoj, as guest
Erich von Eichhein, Major Manfred Steiner, Registrar Luka Bokšan, as guest
Doctor Izak Rieman, Farmhand, Commander Slavc, SS Lieutenant Rastko Krošl

Opening night 6 October 2023
Performance duration: 4 hours and 40 minutes. Two intervals.

The photos in the programme were shot at the Photo House Pelikan; we would like to thank the Museum of Recent History Celje (MNZC) for their help and cooperation in the production.
We would like to thank Mr. Samo Šavs for his help.

Stage manager Zvezdana Kroflič Štrakl • Prompter Breda Dekleva • Lighting masters Gregor Počivalšek, Amadej Canjuga • Sound master Mitja Švener • Property masters Roman Grdina, Đorđe Dimitrijević, Saša Kroflič • Front-of-house David Vitez • Make-up artists Marjana Sumrak, Andreja Veselak Pavlič • Wardrobe masters Suzana Pučnik, Maja Zimšek, Mojca Panić, Diana Pavič • Tailor Anita Kragelj • Seamstress Ivica Vodovnik • Head of construction Gregor Prah • Technical manager Aleksandra Štern • Assistant technical manager Rajnhold Jelen

Branko Završan, Maša Grošelj, Lucija Harum, Urban Kuntarič, Rastko Krošl, Tarek Rashid, Eva Stražar
Barbara Medvešček, Branko Završan, Lucija Harum, Urban Kuntarič, Eva Stražar, Rastko Krošl
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Urban Kuntarič, Lucija Harum
Eva Stražar, Lučka Počkaj, Žan Brelih Hatunić, Andrej Murenc
Maša Grešelj, Lučka Počkaj, Branko Završan, Luka Bokšan, Barbara Medvešček, Žan Brelih Hatunić
Urban Kuntarič, Lucija Harum, Jakob Šfiligoj
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Branko Završan, Jakob Šfiligoj, Tarek Rashid, Rastko Krošl
Maša Grošelj, Branko Završan, Lučka Počkaj, Andrej Murenc, Urban Kuntarič
David Čeh, Andrej Murenc, Branko Završan, Luka Bokšan, Tarek Rashid
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
David Čeh, Rastko Krošl, Žan Brelih Hatunić, Jakob Šfiligoj, Maša Grošelj, Andrej Murenc
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Luka Bokšan, Branko Završan, Lučka Počkaj
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Lučka Počkaj, Maša Grošelj, Eva Stražar, Žan Brelih Hatunić, Rastko Krošl, Tarek Rashid, David Čeh
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Rastko Krošl, Luka Bokšan, Žan Brelih Hatunić
Žan Brelih Hatunić, Luka Bokšan
Žan Brelih Hatunić, Luka Bokšan
Luka Bokšan, Andrej Murenc, Žan Brelih Hatunić
Andrej Murenc, Žan Brelih Hatunić, David Čeh
Andrej Murenc, Žan Brelih Hatunić, David Čeh, Lučka Počkaj
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Lucija Harum, Urban Kuntarič
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Žan Brelih Hatunić, Eva Stražar
Eva Stražar, Žan Brelih Hatunić, Barbara Medvešček
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje
Branko Završan, Eva Stražar, Maša Grošelj, Andrej Murenc
Žan Brelih Hatunić, Branko Završan, Barbara Medvešček
Lučka Počkaj, Urban Kuntarič, Jakob Šfiligoj
Žan Brelih Hatunić, Branko Završan, Jakob Šfiligoj, Urban Kuntarič
Foto Uroš Hočevar/SLG Celje

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