I Saw Her That Night

Original title To noč sem jo videl
Première 24. september 2021, Stara dvorana SNG Maribor
The first Slovenian performance
Running time 4 hours 20 minutes. Two intermissions.

Director and dramatisation Janez Pipan
Set designer Marko Japelj
Video designer Vesna Krebs
Costume designer Leo Kulaš
Composer and stage musician Milko Lazar
Vocal coach and arranger Robert Mraček
Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak
Movement and martial arts consultant Sergiu Moga
Language consultant Metka Damjan
Translators of the novel into German Klaus Detlef Olof, Daniela Kocmut
Translator of the novel into Serbian Ana Ristović  
Interpreters into German during rehearsals Barbara Lečnik, Tjaša Šket
Translator of the song Počiva jezero v tihoti into Spanish Mojca Medvedšek
Assistant director Žiga Hren
Assistant costume designer Lara Kulaš
Assistant composer Marjan Peternel

Cast
Veronika Zarnik Nataša Matjašec Rošker
Leo Zarnik Blaž Dolenc
Stevan Radovanović Milan Marić
Major Ilić Nebojša Ljubišić
Madam Josipina Milena Zupančič
Peter, her husband / Filip, Leo’s brother Davor Herga
Horst Hubmayer, a Wehrmacht officer, doctor Daniel Jesch
Joži, housewife Mateja Pucko
Jeranek, worker and partisan Matevž Biber
Jeranek in later years Vladimir Vlaškalić
Singer from Vranje Mirjana Šajinović
English soldier, guard Anže Krajnc
Fani, cook Irena Varga
Franc, servant Ivica Knez
Vito, pianist Robert Mraček
Poet Matija Stipanič
Wallner, an SS officer, a Gestapo commander in Kranj Alfonz Kodrič
Kostja, commissioner Kristijan Ostanek
Peter, partisan and OZNA officer Nejc Ropret
Janko Kralj Petja Labović
Hospital attendant Mojca Simonič
Chetnik soldier Dane Radulović
Brass band Anže Krajnc, Matjaž Kaučič, Žan Pečenik, Ivica Knez
Guests of Podgorsko Davor Herga, Robert Mraček, Matija Stipanič, Mirjana Šajinović, Mojca Simonič, Nejc Ropret, Kristijan Ostanek
Mowers Davor Herga, Nejc Ropret, Kristijan Ostanek
Reapers Mirjana Šajinović, Mojca Simonič

Director Janez Pipan prepared his adaptation, a stage ballad in three tableaux, which reflects his poetic vision of what can often be considered a traumatic and silent part of Slovenian history, after the time-transcending novel I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar – a major figure of Slovenian and European literature. In turn, the co-production with an international cast managed to translate the former and presupposed historical reality directly onto the stage, which was not done by chance but as a logical and somewhat inherent consequence of the novel’s narrative. Namely, all five narrators, who tell the extraordinary life story of Veronika Zarnik from each one’s perspective, are of different nationalities: the Serbian military officer Stevan (Veronika’s lover), Veronika’s mother suffering from dementia, a German doctor, the Slovenian housekeeper Joži and the aged partisan Jeranek. Even though their individual stories reveal only a part of the whole reality, they intersect and provide an intriguingly entangled narrative imbued with love, jealousy, courage, as well as cruelty, treason and other human weaknesses and vices. A love story between Veronika and Stevan, as depicted in the novel, as well as the turmoil of war and Veronika’s fate, are just waymarks of an extremely evocative, intense and, at moments, shocking story with its striking staging potential. To stage such a complex story, which has thus escaped the oblivion of history, one does not require only a brilliant staging concept but, foremost, life experience, erudition, open-mindedness, as well as love and respect for all that is human and all too fragile.