ELENA ZVARÍKOVÁ PAPPOVÁ. FEMME FATALE SLOVENSKÉHO HERECTVA

Elena Zvaríková Pappová (1935 - 1974) was one of the most distinctive phenomenon’s among Slovak actors in the second half of the 20th century, but to this day her artistic profile has not been comprehensively researched. The most interesting period of her career was associated with her engagement at the Theatre of the Slovak National Uprising in Martin (1954 - 1968). To begin with she played marginal characters and genre figures, but from the late fifties she gradually became one of the leading protagonists’ of the ensemble. She mastered coping with stage stylization, but she felt at her best in civilian theatre poetics. In which she found a suitable medium for the believable portrayal of her character's internal conflicts and contemplation for the drama of the characters she played. She was typecast in roles of Plebeian, dominant and unrestrained women. Her corpulent appearance combined with her individual sense of humour was regularly used by directors in the comedy repertoire. Yet she also became a sought-after representative of fateful women who brought sexual irritation and fierce animality to the stage. The subsequent transition to the drama of the Slovak National Theatre in 1969 meant a sharp drop in her acting opportunities.