Portal of Slovenian Performing Arts

A story about a mermaid is often understood as a fairy tale that describes the transformation from a girl to a woman, a story about a woman who sacrifices herself for her man. The text of a mermaid follows this path in reverse – the path of a married woman, one who has sacrificed enough, reversing to being a free girl, a free being.

Based on a short story by Raymond Carver, this play explores the relationship between a man and a woman through a collage of different dramatic approaches: dramatic dialogues, quotes, comments, images, monologues, lists, fragmentary memory records and audio recordings.

The play Fairies in Slovenia focuses on the issue of shame through the stories of four young female characters who are confronted with experiences of abuse, illness and loneliness in times of precariousness, gentrification and social insecurity. The intimate stories of these individuals offer insight into the deep-rooted power of the patriarchy, which manifests itself in personal relationships as well as in sexism – and sexual abuse – but above all in precarisation and public health.