Theatre Gigante’s Season Finale Postponed

With the U.S. premiere of Rok Vilčnik’s Sakeshvili: The People’s Democratic Circus is postponed because of illness.

by

Theater

Theatre Gigante planned to conclude their trans-Atlantic 2025-26 season next month with the U.S. premiere of Rok Vilčnik’s Sakeshvili: The People’s Democratic Circus. Alas, Gigante was forced to postpone Sakeshvili until next season.

Health issues plagued the production even before rehearsals began. “First one of our actors got seriously ill, then we lost another to a surgery, and now in the middle of rehearsals, two out of four of our other performers have come down with serious and unexpected health issues that are making it impossible to present the show in June,” said Gigante’s co-artistic directors Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson, in a statement. “We have never had this happen and are absolutely heartbroken.”

Gigante has lived between continents in recent years, performing in Italy and Slovenia as well as their hometown, Milwaukee. The choice of Sakeshvili epitomizes Gigante’s internationalism.

Vilčnik is an award-winning Slovenian playwright, a multi-faceted artist with few apparent analogues in the Anglophone world. He authors plays for adults and children, writes novels and poetry, pens lyrics for rock bands and screenplays for sitcoms—and is an actor. His plays have been performed in nearby Croatia, Bosnia and Austria, but in North America, Theatre Gigante have been his advocates. Once rescheduled, Sakeshvili will be Gigante’s third production of his work.

For more information, visit theatregigante.org