Devised theatre project
Article 55
Mladinsko Theatre
Crew
Directed by: Tjaša Črnigoj
Idea and script: Tjaša Črnigoj
Artistic collaboration, set and costume design: Tijana Todorović
Script: Tamara Avguštin, Anja Novak, Katarina Stegnar, Miranda Trnjanin
Dramaturgy: Urška Brodar, Tjaša Črnigoj
Music and sound: Tomaž Grom
Video: Ana Čigon
Lighting design and video: Borut Bučinel
Assistant dramaturg: Helena Šukljan
Video, set and costume design assistant: Lene Lekše
Stage manager: Urša Červ
Language consultant: Mateja Dermelj
Interviewees: Mojca Dobnikar, Vlasta Jalušič, Mateja Kožuh Novak, Sonja Lokar, Metka Mencin, Tanja Rener, Mirjana Ule, Živa Vidmar
Production: Mladinsko Theatre
The partner of the production is RTV Slovenija.
Cast
Tamara Avguštin
Anja Novak
Katarina Stegnar
Miranda Trnjanin
About the performance
Slovenia has the right to contraception and elective pregnancy termination enshrined in its constitution. In Slovenia, safe abortion is relatively accessible, and hormonal contraception is mostly covered by insurance. This is a rarity worldwide.
Article 55 travels back to the 1980s and early 1990s, reconstructing the time in which the socialist system was coming to a close and the entire region experienced a surge in nationalist tendencies, but which was also marked by new civil movements and feminism. As a socialist republic, Slovenia had the right to choose to bear children written in the constitution since 1974, however, this right was questioned during the process of the country gaining independence.
The most heated polemics about the new constitution were triggered by the article concerning women’s reproductive rights. Some suggested simply to leave it out. Women’s or feminist groups fought determinedly against it and insisted that these rights remain enshrined in the Constitution.
The production is based on archival materials, the reflections of that time and the talks with the protagonsist of that fight. It thus sheds the light on the story of creating groups, support and alliances, which have resulted in the right to choose being protected by the Constitution of Slovenia today.
The performance draws on archives, testimonies, and collective memories of the struggle for reproductive rights: how political decisions, medicine, moralizing, and women’s intimate experiences intertwined into a public dispute. Instead of a museum lesson, this is a vivid, frontal stage debate about freedom, the body, and the state – and about what is a meaning of a right if the conditions for it are not met. [... It] makes the political personal – and turns paper freedoms into a living, conflicted reality.
Gašper Stražišar, Dnevnik, 4 January 2026
The strength of this performance lies in its research and honesty. […] The creators skilfully interweave elements characteristic of feminist theatre, women’s theatre, and auto theatre with archival material. One of the production’s greatest assets is its focus on local history, which perhaps surprisingly, takes on an affirmative tone. […] These are not stories of victimhood or blind celebration, but expressions of genuine respect for the past and for the people who shaped it.
Karolina Bugajak, SEEstage, 2 June 2025
Crucial for the content and the visual aspects of the production are also the documentary videos and photos […] as well as the photos of women’s movements organising from the 1980s. The potential that the production carries is hard to describe. It fundamentally emphasises the fact that gender equality and dignity are something we must fight for. Fight for awareness and for free society as a whole. Once again, theatre played its part as a mediator of this call flawlessly.
Petra Tanko, Radio Slovenija, 28 May 2025
80 minutes, no interval
Video
Photo gallery
