The big winner of the 41st Borstnik Festival is the Ljubljana-based theatre company Slovensko mladinsko gledalisce (SMG). Its production "Fragile!", written by Tena Stivicic and directed by Matjaz Pograjc, bagged the Grand Prix for best performance at tonight's ceremony, with several other awards ending in the hands of those who collaborated in SMG productions.
The life-time achievement award, the Borstnik Ring, was conferred on Peter Trnovsek, a long-time member of Drama SNG Maribor, as the most important festival of Slovenian theatre drew to an end in Maribor.
Among the ten productions on view in the official programme of this year's festival, the jury found "Fragile" to be the best, praising the "effective" and "painfully suggestive" way in which it tunned up the idea of the plot and the sophisticated technological machinery applied to stage this idea.
The award for what the jury labelled "an aesthetic breakthrough" went to Ivica Buljan, the director of the show "Ena in druga" ("The One and the Other" by Botho Strauss), while the award for best direction was conferred on Jernej Lorenci for "The Epic of Gilgamesh". Both are SMG productions.
The "Dominik Smole" Award for best text went to Ana Lasic for the play "Za zdaj nikjer" ("For Now, Nowhere"), performed by the ensemble of the leading Slovenian theatre company, SNG Drama Ljubljana.
The best up-and-coming actor award went to Vanja Plut for her role in the show "Bolezen mladosti" ("Pains of Youth", a SNG Drama Ljubljana production.
The jury also gave out equal awards to five actors: Barbara Cerar for "Pains of Youth", Janja Majzelj for "Fragile!" and "The One and the Other", Natasa Matjasec and Radko Polic for "Kvartet" ("Quartet", a production of E.P.I. Center and Mestno gledalisce ljubljansko) and Marinka Stern for her role in "The One and the Other".
Awards for other achievements went to set designer Branko Hojnik for the sets of the SNG production "Epic of Gilgamesh", and Ljubljana Drama shows "For Now, Nowhere" and "Pains of Youth"; costume designer Belinda Skarica for "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "Quartet", and composer Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar for the play "The One and the Other".
Trnovsek, this year's Borstnik Ring winner, said that the ring will remind him of the theatre, his fellow actors and other people he has worked with during his career. Having appeared in 137 roles, Trnovsek is now about to retire.
"I'm not taking leave of the theatre as a whole, I'll nevertheless spare myself the trouble of having to prove I merited the ring."
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