The Assault

About the performance

The performance is 2 hours and 15 minutes long.

The year 2023, which coincided with the 79th anniversary of the poet’s death, was declared the Year of the Poet Karel Destovnik – Kajuh (1922–1944). In July 1953, he was declared a World War II national hero and is the only Slovenian cultural figure with this title.

Stories can never be read (or at least should not be) in isolation, but they are always intertwined with the stories of other people whose lives intersected with one’s life or at least came very close to the life we are interested in. This was also true of people during World War II. The life of Kajuh intersected with many people’s lives; many lives were lived alongside his, and many more were touched by the story of his untimely passing and his poetry. Before Kajuh, there was Karli, Korlek, son, brother, classmate, lover, and friend, who was born in Šoštanj and died in almost the same place, only a few hours’ walk away, killed by a German soldier of Slovenian descent. In war, brother kills brother, and this fratricide cannot be overcome despite our desire for reconciliation.

By reviving the events of the past, the play seeks to find meaning in the present. It develops Karli’s story alongside that of a certain Young Man lost in the maelstrom of war and trapped in it. This Young Man could have become a man of importance, but history prevented him from doing so –history being invariably written by the victors. This is a play about a generation that consciously transformed from a naive youth into a voice of resistance.

"The Assault by Živa Bizovičar and her co-creators is an attack on the empty cultural struggle, an attack on ideological exploitation, which takes place on the graves and by the trenches of those killed in the war and after it – and on the shoulders of young people. We don’t know what kind of society these young people will be able to create, but we don’t have to fear for the theatre." Petra Vidali, Večer, 12 October 2023

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