The Fairies in Slovenia

min 4 (4 women , 0 men), max (10 women, 10 men)

grown-ups

The Fairies in Slovenia is a contemporary play that portrays the time and context of a generation that was born, grew up and started working under neoliberalism. It is a text of a generation that was given the promise that anything was possible, but, at the same time, was thrust into a reality in which it seems that there is always too much of everything and never enough of anything. It is a text which, in its writing, enacts itself, its physicality, its pain, its imagination and delineates a fantasy/documentary world of a society ruled by magical fairies. The text Fairies in Slovenia focuses on the issue of shame through the stories of four young female characters who are confronted with experiences of abuse, illness and loneliness in times of precariousness, gentrification and social insecurity. The intimate stories of these individuals offer insight into the deep-rooted power of the patriarchy, which manifests itself in personal relationships as well as in sexism – and sexual abuse – but above all in precarisation and public health. Through the intimate experiences of individuals and their stories, through poetry and imagination, we enter a world of relentless pain and simultaneous relentless fearlessness. Despite being trapped in an endless loop of the hyperproductive present and an unimaginable future, the text defiantly outlines the practice of overcoming microfascistic violence. Violence that spans from the privatisation of public space and social goods to the bureaucratised sexist violence of public institutions and, ultimately, to direct violence against women’s bodies. The stories of individuals are linked by invisible activist fairies who, through their struggle for the survival of autonomous spaces for the local community, expose the greed of capitalism and the relentlessness of corruption. Through the narrative of three different intertwined characters, the text explores solidarity as a means of empowerment and courage, and as the most radical and far-reaching gesture in the modern world.

On the day I was born,
we had Emona
and the tolar.
On the day I was born
Kino Mojca,
Kino Triglav,
Rog,
Plečnik stadium,
Respect,
Belle Vie,
Skalca,
Katastrofa,
Fun Factory,
Inbox,
Valentino,
SubSub,
Bolivar,
Bacchus,
Galerija Bar Trenutek,
Fabrka,
Moby Dick,
Jean Bar,
Skelet,
Rhythm of Youth,
Party with a Cause,
KMŠ,
Trnfest
were still alive and well.
On the day I was born,
buses were still rushing across Prešeren Square.
On the day I was born,
we were living in a time when things
that broke down would no longer be repaired,
but got replaced with new ones.
On the day I was born,
no one prepared me for the fact
that I would have to play
a game of
shame,
violence,
sexism,
abuse,
burnout,
anxiety,
depression,
endometriosis,
precarious work,
and gentrification.
On the day I was born,
I did not know that in this game I would have to fight.
On the day I was born,
I decided to play this game with art.
On the day I was born,
I started to play the game of fairies.
I pretended I was a fairy.
Just not to be me.
I always longed
for some day just to wake up and be someone else.
Anyone I wanted to be.
Like in a computer game,
where you choose which role you’re going to play.
Because we’re all playing the game.
Because in life you have to play,
otherwise, you don’t survive.
Above all, I've always longed to live in a world
that would be exactly
like I wanted it to be.
A world like I imagined it.
A world where my rules applied.
A world where no one could tell me what was right and wrong.
A world where I could be someone else.
Just not to be me.
A world where I could be ... A superheroine.
A world where I could be ... Fearless.
A world where I could be ... Invincible.
A world where I could be a ... Fairy.
A world where I could be a ... Raging river.
A world where I could be a ... Peony.
A world where I could be a ... Machine.
A world where I could be a ... Japanese warrior.
A world where I could be a ... Lit firecracker.
A world where I could be a ... Forest nymph.
A world where I could be a ... Fairy.
A world where I could be ...
 
This is not fact. It is fiction.

I would be ... a plot of land.
A plot of land by the raging river.
One day, a mister would buy me and build a small ground-floor tannery on me.
A few years later, he and his sons would add another floor for a leather workshop.
And then I would be ... a leather factory.
And then, twenty years later, another mister would buy me and renovate me and modernise me.
He would wall me in and build another beautiful residential villa next to me.
He would extend my production premises with a ground-floor extension by the river
and start to manufacture and supply products to the army and navy all across Europe.
This other mister would continue to do business with me successfully,
until one day he would go bankrupt and sell me to a third mister – the owner of some leather factory.
And then, after a while, the state would take hold of me,
expropriate me, nationalise me and reorganise me.
And then I would become ... a bicycle factory.
And for almost forty years, I would successfully produce
bicycles that everyone, and I mean everyone, in the city would be riding.
Until some misters who managed me
would abandon me due to logistical costs.
And then I would be ... lonely and resting for a while.
And then I would get bored.
And I would wait and wait and wait.

This is fact. It is not fiction.