Vinko Möderndorfer    

Europa A play with a message, heavily blasphemous farce, a political burlesque, a heavy European nightmare and many other things.

Year of writing: 2013
Comedy about the possibilities, which the over glorified Europe offers to the young people – the Slovenian version
Total cast size: 14 (4 f, 10 m)

grown-ups

grotesque, farce, black comedy, poetic burlesque
unemployment, class and cultural criticism of the society, survival of the fittest

Maks is a literature graduate who has no money, no job and no home. This actually makes him a typical representative of his generation. He has no other choice but to return to his home town. But there, he is not greeted by a warm mother's embrace. Criticism of a provincial little nest is in fact criticism of »mother« Europe, manifested as a »cannibalistic entity«. 

MAX: I was dreaming.

VAGABOND: Impossible.

MAX: I did.

VAGABOND: In these lands, no one dreams anymore.

MAX: Then it was a nightmare.

VAGABOND: Oh, that is possible. A nightmare, of course!

MAX: I saved myself with a bomb.

VAGABOND: So you found him?

MAX: Who?

VAGABOND: Kafka.

MAX: I saved myself with a book.

VAGABOND: Kafka was a real bomb!

Translations

Erica Johnson Debeljak

Europa

Language of translation: English Bilijana Zikić

Evropa

Language of translation: Serbian

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For the author's contact please write to sigledal@gmail.com.

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Awards, nominations, shortlists and recommendations

Slavko Grum Award for Best Play

Europa is a grotesque play, a black comedy, a heavily blasphemous farce or political burlesque, as the author himself defines his genre. The play uses humour and an excellent dramaturgical structure to astutely question several social issues, most prominently the existential cul-de-sac of a destiny for the young generation. Especially those young people who take pride in their achieved education. The author asks bitterly ironic questions about the society’s state of mind, reflected in the cynicism, intolerance, destruction and other “values” of the new era. This makes the play part of the human cosmos where everything that is ethical, everything that is supposed to make humans a species of dignity and nobility, has been lost. The script is intrinsically linked to the Slovenian social context also due to the author’s funny and clever flirting with Slovenian playwriting tradition (writings of Cankar and Strniša). This opens the play to being interpreted as a contemplation on time, tradition and present times whilst also offering various possible readings for staging the play. On the other hand, by raising this issue of the young generation being forced to move back in with their parents as their only possible room for subsistence, the play’s author asks questions that surpass Slovenian boundaries. The dialogue in Europa is polished, action unpredictable and intriguing. The characters are detailed, many of them clearly recognisable characters. They are archetypes from the treasury of our collective and literary dramatic consciousness except of course they are all aptly conceived anew. In accordance with these cannibalistic times, no less.

2014

Play's productions

Directed by: Renata Vidič

Evropa

SNG Drama Ljubljana, 2015

Link

Other scripts by this author