7th Corpus

 Slavka Glavina

on her experience in the Front Theatre
An excerpt from the TVprogramme Theatre Amidst the Rifles (Time that Lives), directed by Helena Koder, produced by RTV Slovenija, 1977

The Front Theatre was a travelling theatre of the 7th corpus which visited army units and organized performances for the civil society from Gorjanci to Brkini. They began work in July 1944 in Jama under Dvor close to Žužemberk. Their first production was Cankar’s Jernej the Underling, while the group leader Zvone Sintič wrote for them a theatre reportage called Three Years of Battle, a dramatized selection of Partisan and authorial poetry and the core text of the group. Effectively, they created their repertoire in its entirety; besides a whole series of one-act plays and sketches, also the so-called Partisan Sound Weekly.


The Front Theatre


An excerpt from the TV programme The Front Theatre: Laughter in the Partisans, directed by Janez Drozg, produced by RTV Slovenia, 1975. Excerpts feature: Silvij Kobal, Volodja Peer, Brane Ivanc, Stanislava Bonisegna, Sonja Blaž, Livij Bogatec, Peter Ternovšek, Marjana Breznik and Boris Rupar. Scenography Marjan Marinc, music arrangement Bojan Adamič, performed by Entertainment Orchestra of RTV SLO (to prevedemo?).
1. By way of an introduction, members of the Front Theatre sang their hymn. This was followed by the Sound Weekly, a selection of popular melodies with witty commentaries to events at home and in the world.
2. Sketch Fool (author Vladimir Suhadolski)
3. Sound Weekly: On little Home Guardsmen
4. Sketch A Skulk (author Marjan Marinc – Mac)
The first performance of the Front Theatre at an event on Dvor by Žužemberk, July 4th, 1944. Samo Jarc, Oto Jugovec – Luka, Milan Kacijan, Jože Stritar sing Sound Weekly
Spectators on their way to the first ever performance of the Front Theatre at Dvor by Žužemberk, July 4th, 1944.
Actors Aleksander Valič and Vasja Ocvirk in Vladimir Suhadolski’s sketch Fool
A meeting in the Partisan hospital on Planina in August 1944. In the front Aleksander Valič reciting Cankar’s Jernej the Underling reworked by Zvone Sintič. In the background a speaking choir of fighters-convalescents with local men and women
Performance of the Front Theatre members at the meeting in Primorska (the Slovene Litoral)
Front Theatre members at the meeting in Podgrad in spring 1945 singing Sound Weekly
The text of the chronicle for the performance in the village of Breže
Acting group of the Front Theatre on the stage
The Front Theatre in Straža by Dolenjske Toplice, 1945

The Funeral of the Front Theatre


Filmed on 8-millimeter tape by Ivan Marinček, 1945. Restoration of the film, film conversion process and DVD: Borko Radešček, 2012.