Today The International Showcase DoSEL in Kranj starts

On World Theatre Day, 27 March 2025, the 55th Week of Slovenian Drama started.
This year’s festival will be even richer and more extensive than previous ones. Until 12 April, audiences will be able to see twenty selected performances and twelve additional festival events.

For the first time The Week of Slovenian Drama presents the International Showcase DoSEL, which is taking place from 28th March to 1st April 2025. It is a presentation of selected performances by partner theatres as part of the Drama of Smaller European Languages project. The International Showcase DoSEL is one of the project’s activities, with which the partners aim at increasing the international recognition and accessibility of dramatic works originally written in smaller European languages. DoSEL partner organizations create in Slovenian, Albanian, Basque, Bulgarian, Estonian, Croatian, Catalan and Maltese languages.

In the frame of the International Showcase DoSEL in Kranj five preformances will be presented:

• Ismail Kadare: The Traitor’s Niche, dramatisation by Doruntina Basha, directed by Kushtrim Koliqi, produced by National Theatre of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo
• Thea Denoljubova: Oh My God, direction and stage version by Stoyan Radev, produced by Ivan Vazov National Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria
• Lovro Kuhar – Prežihov Voranc: Struggle at the Sinkhole, direction Jernej Lorenci, produced by Prešeren Theatre Kranj and City Theatre Ptuj, Slovenia
• André Mangion: Drago, direction and concept by Sean Buhagiar, produced by Teatru Malta, Malta
• Pere Riera: Casa Calores, direction by Pere Riera, produced by Sala Beckett, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

>> Read more about the performances <<

All the performances will be presented in their original languages and will have Slovene and English surtitles.

“The Week of Slovenian Drama is more than just a week and more than just a festival. I am extremely proud that its 55th edition will also be a celebration. This year’s programme is extremely rich and diverse in content, and I am honored that for the first time the festival is presenting the International Showcase DoSEL.”
Rok Bozovičar, acting director of Prešeren Theatre Kranj

As part of the International Showcase DoSEL programme, Jonathan Meth, head of the international network The Fence, will present the results of the research to date on good practices and international breakthroughs in plays and dramatic texts at the discursive event titled Drama of Smaller European Languages: Success Stories.

For four days Kranj will be a meeting point of playwrights, that will gather for the DoSEL Artistic Residency Workshop. It will connect five playwrights from the partner’s countries: Thea Denoljubova from Bulgaria, Xavi Buxeda from Catalonia, Spain, Clare Azzopardi from Malta, Dora Šustić from Croatia and Milan Ramšak Marković from Slovenia.

In addition, there will be the interim meeting of project partners taking place as well as the Capacity Building Workshop and a lecture by professor Marko Robnik Šikonja titled Artificial intelligence, translating tools and translation of artworks.

“Slovenian drama is part of a broader field of drama in smaller European languages, all of which are seeking an answer to the existential question of how to expand their audience beyond their own linguistic borders while preserving national dramatic arts. The DoSEL project searches for and examines possible solutions to this question.”
Barbara Rovere, the coordinator of the DoSEL project

Let us celebrate the beauty of drama in all its linguistic variety. Welcome to the first International Showcase DoSEL in Kranj!