SLOVENSKÁ KLASICKÁ DRÁMA A RÉŽIA NA PRELOME TISÍCROČÍ

This paper analyses the relationship of Slovak dramatic theatre to Slovak drama classics between 1989 and 1994. This paper analyses the issue by discussing the characteristics of the distinctive approaches adopted by notable figures in theatre production and examines the situation through “official” theatre companies. This is done for three key reasons: (a) at the turn of the millennium, the institutional foundations of Slovak theatre still functioned on the basis of inertia, and independent theatres and agencies and ad hoc groupings of theatre makers were still only being established; (b) national classics were practically absent from the season programmes of independent theatre companies until the mid-1990s because until then these companies had presented themselves as “authorial theatres” and as theatres focusing on contemporary works; (c) a number of decentralizing administrative and organizational changes were initiated in the mid-1990s which resulted in the creation of a new model of organizing professional theatre, meaning that developments after 1995 deserve separate attention. The assertion is made that in the analysed period there was an exceptional situation at the Jonáš Záborský Theatre in Prešov due to the productions of Ján Sládeček, which knew how to extract contemporary social messages from the older dramas (e.g. plays by Jozef Gregor Tajovský, Milo Urban and Ján Palárik). By contrast, national classics were not included in the majority of season programmes of professional Slovak theatre companies in the years immediately following the change in political regime.