about the production
The performance is based on the compilation of two stories (Desolate Flower and Remembering my lmprisonment) by the Slovak realist writer Svetozár Hurban Vajanský (1847 - 1916) and a New Year's Eve fairy tale play The Nineteenth Century by an unknown author. The first two stories were written during the writer's stay in prison since he had been sentenced for agitation against the government and local authorities. The stagers tried to depict the state of mind of the prisoner troubled by the memories, doubts and despair concerning his further writer's work. Vajanský's critical attitude toward the social order of that time and the position of the intelectual in the society is adjusted by the stagers in the way that it comes closer to the attitude of today's generation.
creators
director: Rostislav Ballek
dramatization – stage set: Rastislav Ballek, Martin Kubran
script editing: Martin Kubran
stage design: Ján Novosedliak
costume design: Mária Cillerová
characters and cast: Kunovič, Vajanský: Ján Kožuch, Burínský, Jožip: Andrej Hrnčiar, Radovský: Martin Hronský, Kamenec: Branislav Matuščin, Nela Kunovičová: Linda Zemánková, Zbor: Ivan Giač, Jozef Kramár, Ján Barto, Ján Blanský, Anton Januš
director
Rastislav Ballek (1973) freshly graduated from the Directing Art Department of the Drama and Music Academy (VŠMU) in Bratislava presented his directing work at the festival Divadelná Nitra last year. lt was in the M. Dohnány's play Departure from Bratislava performed by the students of the mentioned Academy. The play also won the Prize for the most original staging and script editing at the Setkání'96 Theatre Festival in Brno, the Czech Republic.
Ballek´s work is textually based on the Slovak classical literature but his directing Art abundantly exploiting the means of irony and derision turn them into parodies. The aim is to disglamorize the „saint national themes".