Simona Hamer belongs to a younger generation of Slovene playwrights and is also a practical dramaturg. A long-time member of PreGlej, she mastered her writing skills in a number of playwriting workshops in Slovenia and abroad, and by exploring segments of performative theatre in her original projects and by (co)authoring dramatizations and adaptations for theatre and radio.
Her play Postcards was instigated by the SNT Drama Ljubljana artistic director Igor Samobor. The author drew her inspiration from (Slovene) women who have crossed and moved the borders of what is known and possible. Postcards is a journey. Literally and metaphorically speaking. A lively carousel of adventures and insights observed during a life-long wandering of a woman – Everywoman. In the centre of the text is the question of finding an alternative to today’s mad rush through life in which most people take mechanically the same route between their home and a workplace, with occasional Sunday trips to a nearby hill. The average Westerner suffocates under the weight of shopping shelves, and laments the tininess of his wallet. Totally stressed-out because of his to-do-list, he deletes those lists that begin by I would like to. He looks over his neighbour’s fence with a growing fear and anxiety. With weapons in hand; just in case. The search for other, untrodden paths that are not littered by the debris of our civilization seems almost a necessity and exoticism. Those few who walk these paths are admired and also despised. In Postcards, exploration and articulation of the world through a woman’s perspective comes to life in fragmentary dramaturgy, in literary and genre maneuvering manner, and in correspondence with the story-telling tradition. Each station represents a new challenge, and each junction brings a new decision: which path to choose?