A translation of the review published in the Delo newspaper on 24 January 2009

A Play with Several Meanings

by
Slavko Pezdir

Andri Beyeler: Rosemary the Cow
directed by Branka Bezeljak

Premiere: 21 January 2009

The fairytale like, simple and simultaneously witty text with multiple meanings, which tells a story about the urban, cultured, self absorbed and all knowing Rosemary the Cow (woman) and her ingenuous peasant master (man) and does not refrain from completely explicit educational incentives or more general educational lessons about an individual's tolerance to others, was translated by Vanda Vremšak Richter.

In cooperation with the dramaturge Mojca Kreft and two experienced "travelling comedians" – joyful narrators and virtuoso interpreters of numerous human and animal roles, the burlesque like stylised events were staged on an almost empty set by the director Branka Bezeljak. The set designer Dušan Fišer took care of the minimal scenography with a stylised and scaled down façade of a farm and a range of selected pieces of furniture, items and tools from the peasant environment, which the actors bring on the stage. Stanislava Vauda Benčevič designed the drastically stylised peasant and urban outfits with meaningful accessories. Witty songs, effectively presenting the individual animals' characters, were written by Zoran Predin, while the soundtrack – safe Slavic waltzes and rhythmically free African beats – were contributed by the musician and sound designer Rok Predin.

Barbara Lapajne Predin and Iztok Valič in their roles of narrators and highly stylised interpreters of human and animal protagonists of the poetically simplified and multilayered events, presented quite a broad and eloquent range of inherently humorous means of expression, inviting children to solve riddles about the animal world and animal characteristics. They also offered direct lessons about the children's actions and behaviour in their everyday life, while making the adults laugh by introducing meaningfully humorous subtext about the eternal oppositions between men and women, cities and the countryside, Europe and Africa, wittily integrating the stereotypes about the animals portrayed.