City of Women: Kathy Acker: Don Quixote, which was a dream

“With the novel Don Quixote, Which Was a Dream (1986), Kathy Acker appropriates Cervantes’s original in order to dismantle the world she lives in through a new text. While Cervantes’s Don Quixote is a man who goes mad from reading chivalric romances and decides to become a knight, revive knighthood, and serve his nation, Acker’s Don Quixote is a contemporary woman who has an abortion—because before sending an innocent child into the world, she must first find love. The performance follows a montage structure based on the cut-up method, which is also Acker’s writing technique. Existing situations from the novel are expanded with references from pop culture, the political scene, and the literary canon, and through a specific narrative logic, it follows the author’s biographical and autofictional mode of storytelling. Don Quixote thus constantly intertwines with Kathy Acker, and her adventures with the author’s biography,” wrote translator, author of the dramatization, and dramaturg of the performance, Nik Žnidaršič.

Translator and Author of the Dramatization: Nik Žnidaršič
Director: Živa Bizovičar
Dramaturgs: Nik Žnidaršič, Iva Štefanija Slosar
Set Designer: Lin Martin Japelj
Costume Designer: Nina Čehovin
Composer: Gašper Lovrec
Choreographer: Anna Javoran
Lighting Designer: Andrej Hajdinjak
Video Artist: Beti Frim
Language Consultant: Barbara Rogelj
Make-up Designer: Matej Pajntar
Collaborator for the Costumes of Mary and St. Simeon: Rebeka Filipič
Collaborator for the Metal Costume of Don Quixote: Ichibaeru
Make-up Designers: Matej Pajntar, Alja Sušnik
Assistant to the Director (student): Džana Porić
Assistant to the Dramaturgs (student): Hana Obreza
Assistant to the Set Designer: Živa Brglez
Actors: Darja Reichman, Živa Selan, Blaž Setnikar, Vesna Slapar, Gregor Zorc k.g., Nejc Cijan Garlatti k.g.
Photo: Nada Žgank

Coproduction: Prešeren Theatre Kranj, City of Women; In collaboration: Bunker and Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana; Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Ljubljana.