Frogs or Parable about poor and rich Lazar

Mestno gledališče Ptuj
17. 10. 2010, 19.00 // OLD HALL - STARA DVORANA
Running time 1 hour and 50 minutes. No interval

Opening
21. 3. 2010 Mestno gledališče Ptuj

Director Jernej Lorenci
Dramaturge Krištof Dovjak
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Composer Branko Rožman
Language consultant Simon Šerbinek
Assistant director Yulia Roschina
Lighting designer Simon Puhar

Cast
Waiter Igor Samobor
Lazar, Lazarus Radko Polič
Grandmother, Evica Pia Zemljič

In Strniša’s Frogs a man named Lazar, similar to Faust centuries ago, bargains with the Devil to sell his own soul. Lazar, a poverty-stricken postman who wanders about and lives in hope of a better future, enters an inn called The Frogs located at the edge of the Ljubljana Moor. Hope is offered to him in the form of the Devil, who refuses to take his soul in return. He already has plenty of souls surrendering to him, jumping like small frogs into the pot of hell, from which the Waiter (the Devil) offers Lazar frog legs. Extremely bored, the Devil yearns for the time when he was one with Evica, his female half. This was before the Archangel Michael split him into two. He demands nothing in exchange from Lazar, except to give up his past and turn into a filthy rich gallant: Lazarus. Lazar, however, refuses to surrender his past and is ready to leave when Evica suddenly interferes. Where the Devil fails, the woman succeeds and draws Lazar to his death; he is then resurrected as Lazarus and realizes that he is miserable. This time he arrogantly kills Evica and dies in order to avoid his own guilt and once more become Lazar. The eternal cycle of life goes on for Lazar, the Devil and Evica, who are not destined to find redemption.