Cement

After the novel of the same name by Feodor Vasilyevich Gladkov
Original title Zement
Première 26. marec 2021, Veliki oder SNG Drama Ljubljana
Running time 1 hour 40 minutes. No intermission.

Director Sebastijan Horvat
Translator Mojca Kranjc
Author of the adaptation and dramaturg Milan Ramšak Marković
Set and video designer Igor Vasiljev
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Composer Drago Ivanuša
Lighting designer Aleksandar Čavlek
Language consultant Tatjana Stanič
Assistant director Nina Ramšak Marković

Cast
Dasha Chumalova Nataša Barbara Gračner
Gleb Chumalov Marko Mandić
Badyin Igor Samobor
Motya Vanja Plut
Officer Nejc Cijan Garlatti
Cossack I Gorazd Logar
Cossack II Timon Šturbej
Heracles II or Hydra (voice) Drago Ivanuša

The production of Heiner Müller’s play Cement by the SNT Drama Ljubljana represents the second part of an internationally acclaimed trilogy, conceived in Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade by director Sebastijan Horvat and the author of the adaptation and dramaturg Milan Ramšak Marković. Each of the performances of the trilogy thematises another aspect of the drama: the Ljubljana production focuses on the intimate story of the main characters, Gleb and Dasha. Gleb Chumalov is a returning Red Army soldier who comes home after years of civil war following the October Revolution. He ends up in a cement factory, stripped bare, abandoned and non-operational despite the high-flying revolutionary tenets. Gleb’s homecoming is also a return to his wife and their child. But she does not return his kisses and hugs. She is in love elsewhere: her passion now is the revolution, her body and heart are impenetrable, and their child will soon die of hunger. Gleb’s purpose from this point on is twofold: to convince the new government that people, specifically workers, can restart a factory and resume an even higher output of production and to win back his wife’s heart. The entire external social conflict of panoramic dimensions piles up between Gleb and Dasha. We witness the explosion of the communist revolution, identity and gender politics, class struggle, feminism, historical empowerment, and economic emancipation, set in the kitchen and marital bedroom.