The Graduate

The piece is based on a drama version of a film adaptation of a novel, which suggests that this story provides sufficient matter for literature, cinema and theatre alike. At the time  of its release, the movie The Graduate was considered scandalous for its straightforward handling of a love affair between a young man and a mature woman and its open exaltation of the then passion for young, internally torn people.

In his play of the same title, the Czech director Jakub Krofta artfully skirts period clichés and uses the subject matter only as a stimulus. As if the lively narration, vaudevillian hyperbole and vivacious pace of the original story – that of a young man who loves a woman, or at least believes so, until he meets another woman – were reduced to a basic anecdote only to resurge as the eternal archetypal story of enchantment and disillusionment, so intensely experienced by young people that they are unable to take distance. The relationships among the characters are viewed through the eyes of the protagonist as a quick sequence of events, excitements, individuals, meetings, and places. The authors relate the story with humour and captivating lightness until the very last moment when we suddenly realise that disillusionment is inevitable. Czech director Jakub Krofta was invited to stage the production as a guest artist.

“The inclusion of this title into the dramaturgical plan of the Karol Spišák Old Theatre in Nitra is just a continuation of a trend which was set up by the theatre dramaturgy in the past seasons. The production of the play “The Graduate” follows the trend of introducing valuable and demanding titles for adults and youth which have become iconic outside the theatre (e.g. in literature and film). At the same time they are plays with a strong moral message but not moralising.

... (it is) our Slovak present circumstances, ... a part of the middle class who have earned money in the new social conditions, faithfully imitating the manners of the American society – running parties, enjoying forced merry-making, outrunning each other in superficialities, accepting a change in dominant values from ethical to material, artificially enforcing middle class conventions and their acceptance... Krofta’s production is a young production for a young viewer who finds himself in a similar situation of the first runner, presently solving (or in a short time) his first sexual experiences. The production will certainly help him to overcome the taboos in so far as he will be able to talk about them.”
Ida Hledíková, Theatre Monitoring, IStheatre.sk