I'll change the world for you ... The Slovenian Permanent Theater has chosen this year to surprise at each debut with a series of unpublished proposals: after the rock Hamlet at the beginning of the season and Betajnova's King entrusted to a horror film professional, February will bring at the theater in via Petronio a truly unprecedented production also for the genre tackled, namely the off Broadway musical The last five years by Jason Robert Brown. Producing a musical, albeit in a chamber version, is a new adventure for the TSS which in its history has collaborated several times in the creation of musical theater shows, but never in an American musical. The show was made in co-production with the Slovenian music center Glasbena matica and the National Theater of Nova Gorica.
The last five years is a love story told in an unusual way, which foresees two opposite temporal perspectives: the story of him, the writer Jamie, takes place according to the traditional chronology, that of Cathy, a young musical actress, arrived New York from the provinces, has a reverse trend. The meeting, the marriage, the separation are the three stages lived before the drafting of the libretto also by the author Brown, who wrote this musical after the separation from his wife. It premiered in Chicago in 2001, followed by its Broadway debut a year later. Thus began the international success story of the award-winning musical for two singer-actors and an instrumental group, which toured the world and in 2015 also became a film.
At the Slovenian Teatro Stabile it will be staged with subtitles in Italian and in the Slovenian translation by Janez Usenik, an absolute novelty that will conquer also thanks to the direction of Jasmin Kovic, an artist from Gorizia with television and cinematographic experiences, to whom the particularity of this musical ( which does not focus on a spectacular visual impact or mass choreography) allowed us to focus on the intimacy of a love story. We talk about the rise of a young successful writer and a woman who aspires to become an appreciated actress: the ambitions of both, especially his successes and their consequences, however, do not help this relationship, which ends after five years.
»This is not a love story that could be narrated by the great poets of the past. (…) But it is the story of a true love, however love can be, a fragile, insecure and vulnerable love. And it is an infinitely beautiful love story, as only simple stories can be.« – the translator Usenik writes about the libretto, who adds: «Only those who have experienced such a love can give music so much feeling: in moments in where the violin cries for too many memories, where the guitar lets through its strings all the rage of a broken heart and the bass embraces the impotence of a soul divided in two that is losing its own half, emerges all the talent of the composer.«
Two actors of undoubted musical talent, Danijel Malalan and Patrizia Jurinčič from Trieste, will play and sing in the roles of the protagonists, and the musical director of the project, the multi-instrumentalist Andrejka Možina, also arrives from Trieste, who also coordinates the instrumental group on stage, made up of Sebastiano Frattini, Irene Ferro-Casagrande, Andrejka Možina, Matteo Bognolo, Luca Emanuele Amatruda and Mariano Bulligan. Sets and costumes are by the young Giulia Bellè.
The first by subscription will be staged on Friday 8 February at 20.30 at the Ridotto del Kulturni dom in Trieste, with a preview for journalists and guests on Thursday 7 February at the same time. The Trieste performances will continue until 24 February, while on 18 February the show will be on tour at the Kulturni center Lojze Bratuž in Gorizia as part of the TSS subscription season for Gorizia. For the repeat scheduled for Valentine's Day, there is a special offer dedicated to couples, with two tickets for the price of one to celebrate Valentine's Day in an original way. All shows will be subtitled in Italian and a free shuttle bus service will be provided for Sunday afternoon performances departing from Sistiana, Muggia and Opicina.
