IN THE THEATRE, THE AUDIENCES SEEKS AN ANSWER TO THEIR QUESTION ABOUT THE ART OF LIVING (II)

In the second part of the interview (1st part can be found in 1-2 (2005) issue), the theatrical critic and historian A. Matasik talks to the famous Slovak theatre director of the middle-age generation about his cooperation with the Slovak professional troupes - with the A. DUCHNOVIC Theatre (performing in Ruthenian, the national minority language), as well as with non-professional theatre troupes, mainly with amateurs from Brezno and the Slovak amateur actors of Vojvodina in Bácsky Petrovec. In his interview the prominent Slovak director Matus Ol'ha draws attention to a negative development and devaluation of the theatrical art position in society, which is linked to a general cultural crisis, to omitting of its meaning and needs in Slovakia in the turn of the millennium. In the conclusion the director Ol'ha voiced out an apprehension that the present lack of qualified theatrical criticism can in a longer perspective result in an absence of authentic testimonies on the situation of the Slovak theatre, and that it will no longer be possible to evaluate the production of this theatrical generation in its complexity and continuity.