The incest in the ruler’s house provokes the flood in “Babylon”, which is visualized by a savagely beautiful, passionate theatre. Among all Pandur’s archetypes, King Nin is both the most ferocious animal and the greatest Man.
“Die Welt”, 1996. Berlin, Germany.

Pandur’s free scenic imagination penetrates through the monumental terra-cotta architecture and apparently brassy insensibility without robbing the text of its fabula, the story of the destruction of a kingdom. At the same time, on the directorial level, Pandur tries to add new, meaningful, and interpretationally open quests. Placing the viewer in a tower, the director enables him to have a bird’s perspective. In a way the viewer is identified with a dove, a bird which in the mythology of the Near East stands for the seer of all that remained after the Flood; the bird however also leads the viewer into a fictitious underwater world where s/he is - ritually, carnally, orgiastically, and animalistically — shown the way to his/her water-tomb, to the punishment for his/her sins.
Kristof Dovjak, “Dnevnik”, 1996. Ljubljana, Slovenia.

With “Babylon”, Pandur has reached the highest point of his apprehension of the cinemascope theatre.
Sven Michaelsen, “Der Stern”, 1996. Hamburg, Germany.

With a wild and dense passion, the performance speaks of the infinite vicinity of love and hate, even their communion, the presence of the former in the latter. It is another experience of searching for new theatrical possibilities and of delving into the most precious layers of the human being.
Lojze Smasek, “Vecer”, 1996. Maribor, Slovenia.

The artist Radko Polic is primus inter pares in “Babylon” as well: the king of the performance and king on the stage. an actor of incredible strength, who enthuses with both his mimics and his movement.
Eva Shäffer, “Neue Zeit”, 1996. Vienna, Austria.

Pandur repeatedly turns to Artaud’s credo: “The theatre must cause such pain as a blow in the stomach does.” This principle is also observed in “Babylon”. Even before the viewer is capable of realizing what has overcome him so intensely, the next event takes over, penetrates his intestines and agitates him.
Gerhard Melzer, “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, 1996. Zürich, Switzerland.

Pandur’s starting-point is the return to A bloody ritual. This is the point at which he eavesdrops on the subdued whisper of the inner world.
Thomas Petzold, “Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten”, 1996. Dresden, Germany.

Tomaz Pandur does not ruin the pathos of the pre-historic times with modern approaches; relationships between individual characters remain mythic. Mythic is the vow of the ancestors, mythic is the identity of symbols, the accordance of man with nature. Mythic is the meaning of the incest. When, however, a dove takes leave from the mother’s womb, guilt and innocence are wiped away.
Stephan Speicher, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, 1996. Frankfurt, Germany.

The staging of the myth of “Babylon” by the theatre magician and visionary Tomaz Pandur, who qualifies himself as “a lonely dreamer”, has made an exceptional impact. His set designer Marko Japelj, the sculptor Oskar Kogoj and himself have built another Tower of Babylon, a mighty four-storey building.
Gottfried Blumenstein, “Sächsische Zeitung”, 1996. Chemniz, Germany.

When staging his “theatre of the world”, Pandur is not afraid of either pathetics or trash, orgasm or orgy. In spite of having been repeatedly labeled both megalomaniacal as well as tenderly intimate, perfect as well as unbearable, we have to admit he is above all brilliant. No other director of the young European generation has so boldly and uncompromisingly enthroned his/her own images and theatrical expression as he, nobody has so bravely reached for the stars and put them on the stage.

Sven Ricklefs, Deutschlandsradio Köln, 1996. Köln, Germany.

Nothing can hide Pandur’s uniqueness in today’s theatre: his powerful assertion of passion for inventing images, his theatrical fantasy which left traditional stage-premises long ago, his building of new theatrical worlds — infinite, unconventional, fulminate. In any case unforgettable.
Sigrid Löffer, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, 1996. München, Germany.