Saint Joan of the Stockyards

So never say that nobody can change things. That injustice is ours from birth.
Bertolt Brecht

ErosAntEros continues its research on an engaged theater that does not forget the aesthetic power of the form, with a new project starting from a great theatrical classic of the twentieth century, Saint Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht, creating the opportunity to confront on stage with the Slovenian cult band LAIBACH.

Economy, capital, financial speculation, exploitation of workers, these are the major themes at the heart of the play, written following the great collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, which led, first the United States and then Europe, to ten years of economic crisis, industrial failures, land abandonment, unemployment, poverty, until the Second World War. Today we are in the permacrisis, the centers of production have shifted, the great working masses no longer live in the privileged West and the owners are more difficult to identify, but the exploitation of living beings and resources has not stopped, indeed, it has generated other changes, such as global warming, wars, pandemic, energetic crisis, consequences of the same diseased economic system. All of this continues to make Saint Joan of the Stockyards a contemporary text that addresses issues not far from us, offering an opportunity to connect them in a dialectical relation to our present through the use of videos of reality. And if the billionaires reread Marx to save capitalism from itself, we reread Saint Joan of the Stockyards to free ourselves from it, bringing it to the scene with a staging in which Brecht’s words are entrusted to actors of different languages, precisely because in the age of globalization only by joining forces we can achieve the revolution that can grant future generations to continue living on this planet.

by Bertolt Brecht

concept, direction and set Davide Sacco e Agata Tomšič / ErosAntEros
original live music LAIBACH featuring Milan Fras (voce), Mina Špiler (voce, effetti), Bojan Krhlanko (batteria, percussioni), Rok Lopatič (tastiere), Vitja Balžalorsky (chitarra, effetti) composed by Matevž Kolenc
dramaturgy Urška Brodar, Florian Hirsch, Aldo Milohnić, Agata Tomšič

with Klemen Kovačič, Danilo Nigrelli, Ivan Peternelj, Katarina Stegnar, Blaž Šef, Agata Tomšič, Matija Vastl
in video Felix Adams, Marco Lorenzini, Maximilien Ludovicy-Blom, Wolfram Koch, Pitt Simon, Philippe Thelen
in audio Boris Kos, Robert Prebil, Matej Recer, Klemen Ulrih, Vito Weis
video design Akaša Bojić and Luka Umek / Komposter
light design Vincenzo Bonaffini
costume design Arianna Fantin

dramaturgy and direction assistant Ula Talija Pollak
speech advisor Mateja Dermelj

technical direction Massimo Gianaroli
stage direction Liam Hlede
head machinist Alfonso Pintabuono
props Luca Piga
head electrician Lorenzo Maugeri
sound technician Andrea Melega
sound engineers Laibach Matej Gobec, Marko Turel
video technician Salvatore Pulpito
wardrobe Eleonora Terzi
subtitles Tina Malič

set realized in ERT scenography studio
head of scenography studio and carpenter Gioacchino Gramolini
carpenters Sergio Puzzo, Davide Lago, Veronica Sbrancia, Tiziano Barone
set decorators Ludovica Sitti with Sarah Menichini, Benedetta Monetti, Bianca Passanti
scenic machines Roberto Riccò
costumes realized by Eleonora Terzi

photos by Daniela Neri

thanks to Stella Riolino for the assistance during the rehearsals in Luxembourg

production Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale, Slovensko Mladinsko Gledališče in collaboration with Cankarjev Dom, TNL – Théâtre National du Luxembourg, ErosAntEros – POLIS Teatro Festival in collaboration with Ravenna Teatro for the date in Ravenna, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano

duration 110 min

debut 18th-21st April 2024, Teatro Arena del Sole, Bologna

performance in Italian, Slovenian, German, English with surtitles


Saint Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht
copyright Suhrkamp Verlag AG Berlin courtesy of the Danish Tolnay Agency
translation Franco Fortini (Italian), Mojca Kranjc (Slovenian), Ralph Manheim (English)



ErosAntEros was born from the union of Davide Sacco, stage director, and Agata Tomšič, actress and dramaturg, in 2010. Their artistic research brings forward an engaged theater that does not give up the aesthetic value of form, in a strong relation whit the history, the present and the places in which is created, with the aim to connect theater to life and make the imagination a weapon to transform reality. Since 2018 they are directing POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna.

LAIBACH is a music and cross-media group from Slovenia established in 1980. The name of the band is the historic German version of the name Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. It has developed a Gesamtkunstwerk: multi-disciplinary art practice in all fields ranging from popular culture to art. The main elements of their practices are: strong references to avant-garde art history, nazi-kunst and socialist realism for their production of visual art; de-individualisation, conceptual proclamations and forceful sonic stage performance.