The Agit Prop Theatre

Matej Bor

on the first Partisan theatre group under the leadership of Ivan Rob, within which Matej Bor started writing his play Son’s Shot, later renamed A Heavy Hour.

An excerpt from the TV performance Theatre amidst the Rifles (Time that Lives), directed by Helena Koder, produced by RTV Slovenija, 1977

In May 1942 the leadership of the Slovene liberation struggle settled on the liberated territories in Kočevsko. In June 1942 they founded the first acting group in Stari Log. None of their members were professional actors. They organized meetings for Partisan and civil population around the area of Rog. They recited Prešeren, Gregorčič, Bor, giving original performances by way of spoofs, couplets and popular songs to the accompaniment of a guitar. Matej Bor and Miran Jarc began writing plays for the group. Bor wrote the first version of A Heavy Hour, entitled Jeriša’s Great Evening, and Jarc wrote the sketch Gabrenja. The group had already started with reading rehersals for the two plays, but the Rog offensive cut off the possibility of their ever being performed. During and after the Rog offensive most of the group’s members fell in battle. The group was later named Agit Prop Theatre.