It has already become a tradition that spring days in Prague's Drama Club include a tour of guest theater troupes presented by Drama Club. But what is no longer so obvious is the participation of an ensemble from Slovakia in such a parade. And this year, the ŠOK Theater from Šale was the only group to do it. For complete information, it is important to emphasize that the Drama Club is one of the most famous theaters in Prague, and actors such as Pavel Landovský, Petr Čepek, Josef Abrhám, Jiří Kodet or Libuše Šafránková have passed through it. And as Leoš Suchařípa, one of the long-term members of the troupe, said about this theater, the Drama Club was from its beginning a theater of actors who inspired directors. And if we look in detail at his current dramaturgy, we can confirm that this definition is more than accurate.
Perhaps that is why the Parášan theater received this opportunity for the second time in the last few years. The production Ťapákovci, adapted from the short story of Božena Slančíková-Timrava, is a typical acting performance with a very balanced cast of individual characters. The play raises ideas about the immutable principles of human behavior, about the comfort and reluctance of a person to change anything in his life, about the fear of moving somewhere further, which fall on the viewer with such intense urgency that he cannot leave the theater indifferent in any case. And certainly not even the audience who visited the Prague performance of the Ťapákovs on the last Sunday of May left with such a feeling. In front of an almost sold-out audience, the largest part of which was mainly our compatriots living in the Czech Republic, the performance received huge applause and a very positive response later backstage. What was very valuable was the addition of the Czech audience, including the employees and technical staff of the theater. In the Theater Cafe, the show, but not only it, was discussed until the early hours of the morning, until these festive moments for Slovak theater were graciously interrupted by sun-drenched Prague, which is inherently full of foreign tourists at this time of year. The city began to live its daily life again. But one thing is certain. For Divadlo ŠOK z Šale, the doors of the Drama Club will remain open... So see you soon, Mrs. Centurion! We would like to thank all our fans and the city of Šaľa for their financial support for our show, as well as for the media support of Czech Radio, the MF DNES newspaper, the Slovak Culture Club, Listy magazine, the Slovak Institute, the Slovak Community in the Czech Republic, the Slovak House in Prague, Dotyky magazine , the Slovenka club and the internet portal somvprahe.sk, who enabled us to show our culture abroad and to represent the city of Šaľa and Slovakia.
Text: Vladimír Dubeň
Photo: Magdaléna Bartovicová