From Political Theater during Yugoslav Socialism to Political Performance under Global Capitalism: The Case of the Slovene Mladinsko Theater

Abstract

Political theater is a trend that, during the avant-garde 1920s, emerged at the intersection of efforts to liberate the oppressed and the artistic form. It influenced the Slovenian theater artists (Workers' stage) already in the interwar period. Among global currents of politicized performing arts since the 1960s, a trend of "political theater" launched in Slovenia and the other republics of former Yugoslavia in the 1980s was a success. Due to the identity crisis of the Yugoslav state and the ideology the political theater addressed great stories of History and the Revolution in a post-avant-garde manner. During the transition, political theater initially lost its edge but revived in the 21st century. As a post-dramatic practice associated with performance, it analyzes its policy. It represents a forum for a critique of the small, local stories in which, however, surface the contradictions of a peripheral nation-state in the era of transnational late capitalism