Milan Golob wanted to reinforce the religious, philosophical and drama aspect of the performance. He put the professional work with the performers to the forefront of his endeavours. In this way he brough the text closer to them enabling them to better understand and feel it. This contributed to their roles being performed in a more vivid, spontaneous and convincing manner.
He originates from Ratež near Novo Mesto, and lives in Ljubljana. He studied theatre direction at the Academy of Theatre, Film, Radio and Television.
He based his directorial concept on the ecce homo premise. He focused on the acting aspect of the performance as he believed the religious experience was the primary aim of the performance (i.e. more important that the cultural, artistic or aesthetic one). This means that the message was more important than the form and the intelligibility was more important than the performance or the request to create a spectacle. He reiterated the importance of the professional work (proofreader, dramaturge, choreographer, director, Father Capuchin as the spiritual leader…) with the actors as this is the only way for them to be able to perform in a vivid, spontaneous and convincing manner. His most important personal premise was that despite the dark atmosphere, depicted suffering and pain the final message is positive, light and elevated.
Two important colleagues who helped to set up the procession under the helm of Miran Golob were the dramaturge Rok Andres and the proofreader Ludvik Kaluža. They followed the directions written by Father Romuald, and upgraded them using modern means of analysis and performance. In the framework of individual scenes, they looked for linguistic and directorial emphases creating the dynamics and atmosphere. The proofreader taught the actors about the luxury of language and pronunciation. He prepared the speech implementing version of the Škofja Loka Passion Play in which he changed the Romuald’s language only to such an extent it would be more intelligible to them and closer to its spoken image.
They tried to imitate the procession-like flow of the performance though independent transition between the scenes i.e. following the principle of autonomous dynamic editing. They upgraded certain scenes and teams of actors. The horsemen in the death cavalry were added the horse handlers in costumes. The soldiers and the infantry grenadiers were also partially reshaped. The performance was visually interesting due to a consistent use of light, music and movements, as well as due to improved costumes and stage set.
