Premiere WHEN THE WORLD STOOD STILL

Dora Delbianco

Coproduction with the Istrian National Theatre – Pula City Theatre

When the World Stood Still borrows equally from Czech humorists and Kharmsian absurdity, situational comedy and satirical tools, written into a winding whole intertwined with bizarre situations. The gallery of ordinary yet unusual characters evokes a dynamic ensemble piece that begins its journey with a mysterious disappearance and ends in a violent spiral of political pragmatism. The momentum of this drama is ambitious, but despite the appearances of presidents and ministers, ambassadors and deputies, inspectors and journalists, and even the pope himself, we feel that we are in a text that inspires us with an elusive warmth and disarming charm. This is the story of an unusual case in which the death of one man upset the whole balance of the world. What was believed to be an intimate family drama took on the scale of a global crisis, with the local Croatian government trying to remedy it all.

This comedy won the Marin Držić Award in 2016. In Dora Delbianco’s dramatic manuscript we find elements of realistic comedy and the grotesque, with witty dialogues. Dora Delbianco strives for realism, to which she adds a comedic undertone of grotesqueness, farce and satire.

Vito Taufer is one of the most important directors of the Slovenian and regional “New Theater” of the eighties and nineties. Since 1989 he has been a director at the famous Ljubljana Slovenian Youth Theater. He has collaborated with numerous theaters throughout the former state and has received many international accolades for his work.

The show lasts approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes, and is performed without an intermission.