Lettie Precious, Sabrina Mahfouz, Hannah Khalil, Stella Duffy, Isley Lynn, Chinonyerem Odimba, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Samantha Ellis, Juliet Gilkes Romero, Nejc Gazvoda
Heroines
Publius Ovidius Naso wrote a collection of 21 love letters
in verse under the collective title Heroides or Epistulae
Heroidum:
famous heroines of Greek myths write
to the men of their lives who abandoned, discarded
or betrayed them in various ways.
Ovid’s Heroides is a genre invention that draws from Homer, Vergil, Horace, Sappho. The female writers of letters and their addressees are presented as real personalities from their own time. Penelope writes to Odysseus, Briseis to Achilles, Phaedra to Theseus, Oenone to Paris, Medea to Jason, Dido to Aeneas, Hermione to Orestes, etc. In the contemporary version created in 2020 by the artistic team of the Jermyn Street Theatre in London (its production in November 2020 premiered online), the women’s letters were written by fifteen leading British playwrights. Fifteen monologues, different in style and genre, form a new collection – a complex dramatic text that translates and adapts Ovid’s motifs for contemporary audience.
15 Heroines, 2021
Drama
Prva slovenska uprizoritev
Performance length is 1 hour and 45 minutes and has no pause.
Creators
Translator
Alenka Klabus Vesel
Director and set designer
Aleksandar Popovski
Dramaturg
Eva Mahkovic
Costume designer
Mia Popovska
Composer
Kiril Džajkovski
Language consultant
Barbara Rogelj
Choreographer
Anja Möderndorfer
Assistant to set designer
Janez Koleša
Assistant to dramaturg and director
Urša Majcen
Lighting designer
Andrej Koležnik
Sound designer
Sašo Dragaš
Actors
Oenone
Viktorija Bencik Emeršič
Hermione
Ajda Smrekar
Penelope
Judita Zidar
Dido
Tanja Ribič
Canace
Tina Potočnik Vrhovnik
Diana Kolenc k. g.
Hypermestra
Julita Kropec k. g.
Phaedra
Mirjam Korbar
Medea
Tjaša Železnik
Phyllis
Veronika Železnik k. g.
Metamorphosis
Jernej Gašperin
Their stories are intimate struggles, controversial loves.
The heroines are marked by war and myths. They are characterised mainly as companions, a stop on the way of their lovers or even myths that have been almost forgotten in contemporary world. Their stories are intimate struggles, controversial loves.
For first Slovenian production, directed by Aleksandar Popovski, we chose nine stories, linked together by an additional character. The additional text was written especially for the Slovenian production by Nejc Gazvoda, playwright and director.
In the performance we use an excerpt from PJ Harvey's song Who Will Love Me Now.