At Dawn

Première: 21. 12. 2018, Prešeren Theatre Kranj
Running time 2 hours 10 minutes. No interval.

Author of text adaptation Katarina Morano
Director Žiga Divjak
Dramaturg Katarina Morano
Set designer Tina Mohorović
Costume designer Tina Pavlović
Language consultant Maja Cerar
Composer Blaž Gracar
Lighting designer David Orešič
Make-up artist Matej Pajntar

Cast
Anka’s mother, Someone, Woman 2, Lady with flowers, Clothes salesman, Child, Lady who talks, Young gentleman, Mara, Someone Vesna Jevnikar
Anka’s father, Someone, Fat cashier, Ribbon salesman, Engine driver, Waiter, Police officer, Child, Father (Seamstress), Papa, Gentleman in the square Peter Musevski
Anka’s sister, Girl 2, Someone, Fat woman, Leather salesman, Child, She (Seamstress), Mama Vesna Pernarčič
Girl 1, Someone, Confectioner, Shoe salesman, Child, Marko Blaž Setnikar
Anka, Minca Vesna Slapar
Girl 3, Someone, Woman 3, Goldsmith, Child, He (Seamstress), Parish priest Aljoša Ternovšek
Narrator, Mrs Riegel, Someone, Hat salesman, Child, Sexton, Jernej Gregor Zorc as guest

The basis for the performance At Dawn is longing for a better, more real, more nuanced, more sensible life, which pervades Cankar’s selected stories. A fourteen-year-old girl who works from seven to seven dreams of a forest and golden baked cakes; a seamstress providing for her fragile elderly parents dreams, with her beloved by her side, how she will one day sew curtains for their home; a lady who smokes and talks dreams how one day she will no longer be tired: a starving boy dreams about a big city and big books and how one day he’ll at least have enough to keep his stomach quiet; a tired rebel dreams that justice exists somewhere … Every one of the stories includes a moment in which anything seems possible, a moment when the dawn gives a promise of something better, a brighter future, a moment in which, even though they’re entrenched in mud, they can fly. Can the dawn throw light onto more than a dilapidated muddy room when it sends light into the everyday of people on the margin? Can it show more than the inevitable reality and entrapment of that day that goes on and on and spreads to other days, centuries, all the way until now? Bodies change, destinies remain the same.

Director

Studied theatre directing at the UL AGRFT; entered the cultural public with the series of events and performances Right Before the Revolution (2013–15), which he presented at the Maribor Theatre Festival, the Non-Stop Theatre Festival in Chemnitz (Germany) and twice in Zagreb (Croatia). This series won him the Student Prešeren Award from UL AGRFT (2015). In 2017, he won the Borštnik Award for Direction (The Man Who Watched the World), and in 2018 the Borštnik Grand Prix (6, both Mladinsko Theatre). 

Producer

www.pgk.si