DOG ON THE ROAD “The once common books resembling cathedrals are no longer published today; now we have modern churches: visibly pleasant, bright and cosy. They give you comfort, but don’t accommodate your belief,” writes Slovak novelist, translator and essayist Pavel Vilikovský at the end of his book Dog on the Road. This gripping adaptation of a contemporary novel, in which the author reflects on the nature of the Slovak nation through his alter ego Iks Ypsilon, is directed by Dušan D. Pařízek, who is making his debut on the Slovak stage. In Pařízek’s adaptation, four actors portray the writer’s character Iks Ypsilon, and through their mouths he contemplates the themes of home, nation and patriotism. “Staging Vilikovský’s socially critical text at a time when the independence of the Slovak cultural sector is being eroded by the Ministry of Culture headed by Martina Šimkovičová – let’s remember the end of Kunsthalle Bratislava, now merged with the Slovak National Gallery, or the current discussions about the transformation RTVS, the public radio and TV broadcaster – is something that should attract attention,” points out Iva Mikulová. The appeal and responsibility for the current state of not only the cultural sphere emanates from the production, which represents another significant achievement by a director who is attentive and diligent in developing his concept of “dogmatic minimalist” theatre. The ascetic external theatrical techniques leave room for a strong interpretation of the text and focus on the chosen theme, which is always related to current social and political events. Costume and set designer Kamila Polívková and composer Peter Fasching further underline Pařízek’s signature style in this production.
Today it might seem that Vilikovský wrote Dog on the Road specifically for Pařízek. It contains all the themes that the director has long tackled in his work: the search for the identity of Central European nations, the relationship between an individual and the nation, the political and social responsibility of an individual, the parochial features in human thinking, and other socially critical motifs. Each of them is varied and examined in the text and its adaptation from many different angles, be they humorous, sad, and sometimes just plain honest and unpretentious.
– IVA MIKULOVÁ, Divadelní noviny
We have seen similar stage design, as well as the slideshows (here on large white surfaces on the sides and above the stage), the play with torchlight, light and shadows, or the devastated stage elements, in Pařízek’s previous productions. On the stage of the Slovak National Theatre, however, everything seems to have fallen into place, thanks to an excellent source text and actors. The aforementioned four actors represent not only the main character, but all the other characters as well. In a sex scene between an aging man whose body has “not only given up on sex, but stopped even remembering what it was like” and an Austrian woman whom he has met by chance during his wanderings, the woman is played by a bearded Kostelný dressed in a red bathing cap, a tank top, and well-toned muscles. And yet, the scene is breathtaking, tender, surprising, and delivered with humour. Elsewhere in the production, too, humour and irony serve as a counterpoint to the angry complaining and disillusionment they alternate with, in precise doses and quick succession, same as the actors in their many roles.
– KAMILA ČERNÁ, Lidové noviny
DUŠAN DAVID PAŘÍZEK (1971) studied Comparative Literature and Drama at the University of Munich and Acting and Directing at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1998, when he was still a student, he founded and subsequently led the Prague Chamber Theatre from 2002 to 2012, which went on to win the ‘Theatre of the Year’ award several times. In addition to a number of firsts in productions and premieres in the Czech Republic (of plays by Werner Schwab, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke, and Thomas Bernhard, just to name a few), he also adapted works by authors such as Robert Musil and Franz Kafka there. Since 2002, he has directed a number of plays (for most of which he also designed the sets) in major theatres across Germany and Switzerland, including Schauspiel Köln, Deutsches Theater Berlin (a co-production with Salzburger Festspiele), Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Schauspiel Hannover, Theater Bremen, Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, and Schauspielhaus Zürich. After his first directorial job in Vienna at the Akademietheater (The Ridiculous Darkness) in 2014, he staged his own adaptation of Hašek entitled The Schwejk Case in 2015 as part of Wiener Festwochen in co-production with Prague’s Studio Hrdinů. In the 2015–2016 season, he staged his own adaptation of Thomas Bernhard’s Old Masters and Peter Handke’s Self-Accusation at the Volkstheater in Vienna, where he also staged Nora³ by Henrik Ibsen and Elfriede Jelinek, originally produced as a world premiere for Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. In the 2016–2017 season, he staged Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools, also at the Volkstheater. In 2012, Pařízek’s production of J. W. von Goethe’s Faust 1–3 was invited, together with Elfriede Jelinek’s secondary drama FaustIn and Out (which premiered at the Schauspielhaus Zürich in 2012), to the Authorentheatertage Festival in Berlin and, in 2013, to the Theatertage Festival in Mülheim. In 2015, he was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and the Theatertage Festival in Mülheim with his rendition of The Ridiculous Darkness, which premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 2014. The dark comedy was named Best Production of the Year, won Set Design of the Year in the critics’ survey of Theater Heute Magazine, and was awarded the 2015 Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best German-Language Production. In the 2017–2018 season, Dušan David Pařízek staged the Austrian premiere of Ewald Palmetshofer’s Before Sunrise (a play based on the play by Gerhart Hauptmann) at the Akademietheater in Vienna. The production won the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best Direction in 2018. In the 2018–2019 season, Iphigenia was his first work for the Schauspiel Bochum. The next season saw him direct, among other things, Chekhov’s Three Sisters in Bremen. His work can be perceived as a study on the relations within Central European countries and national identities, which remain very diverse despite their shared past, and whose national myths are in need of critical review. His King Ottokar’s Fortune and End (2019) opened at the Volkstheater with Karel Dobrý in the lead role. With the production of Zdeněk Adamec + Self-Accusation by Peter Handke at Theatre on the Balustrade, Dušan D. Pařízek returned to the Czech capital after many years as a theatre director and now works mostly with Prague’s X10 Theatre (The Moscoviad, All Quiet on the Western Front / Green Corridors).
DRAMA COMPANY OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL THEATRE The Drama Company was launched in 1920. The famous tradition of exceptional acting personalities who worked in the theatre for a whole century is continued by today’s company under the leadership of the most recent artistic heads – Roman Polák (2012–2017) and Michal Vajdička (2018–2019). Since 2021, the Drama Company has been headed by dramaturge Miriam Kičiňová. The theatre’s repertoire consists of classic plays, productions of original plays, adaptations of prose works, and the mapping of the blind spots in Slovak history. In the last few years, the Slovak National Theatre’s Drama Company has regularly taken part in theatre festivals in Toruń, Hradec Králové, Zlín, Brno, Olomouc, Pilsen and Nitra, as well as showing guest productions at the National Theatre in Prague, but also in Brno, Budapest, Bucharest, Ljubljana and Vienna.
