S.O.S. – Save Our Souls

Exactly 222 years ago – in 1770 – the first 400 Slovak families from the Zvolen, Hont and other districts moved to Stará Pazova – half-way between the North pole and the Equator, on the 45^th parallel, 500 km south of Nitra, 30 km north of Beograd.

The Southern land became their new home and here on the then military frontier between the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy and the Turks, attacked by Serbia – the Slovaks began their pilgrim´s life. They prospered and grew in numbers. Today they number 1.000 in a small town of 18.000 inhabitants. From their immigration they have their own Slovak elementary school, the biggest church choir and a very rich and vivid cultural life. Taking part in this cultural life is also an amateur theatre group, established in 1903 that carries the name of its first author and director.

lt has worked uninterruptedly except tor the years of the two world wars and has scored its greatest success during the last decades, when also the talented actor Miroslav Benka has grown up from generations of excellent theatre amateurs. After finishing his studies of acting at the academy in Novy Sad and direction at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, he joined the theatre VHV at Stara Pazova as a professional director. As a student he already started with Smrek's Poet and Woman, staged Lorca´s Bloody Wedding, Oscar Wilde´s Salome, Hurban´s Land and Drifts, Chekhov´s Courting and Wedding, Marisha by the Mrštík brothers, Unhappy Katina by Jovan Jovanovič Zmaj, Fog at Dawn by Milo Urban and finally also the motion theatre S.O.S. – Save Our Souls as his own authorial project which we also introduce at this year´s Theatrical Festival Nitra.

Ján Filip

S.O.S. – Save Our Souls

about the production

creators