The Slovak National Theater (SND) is canceling a total of almost ten percent of seats. The measure related to consolidation concerns all departments of the theater, i.e. ballet, opera, drama, art and decoration workshops, as well as administration. At the same time, the mentioned theater considers this matter to be internal and the media coverage by the actors as purposeful.
According to the available information, five members of the drama are to end in SND. They are supposed to be Martin Šalach, Daniel Žulčák, Roman Poláčik, Anna Magdaléna Hroboňová and Táňa Pauhofová. The opposition and affected artists are talking about a possible intervention in the functioning of the art ensemble.
The news about the departure of well-known actors from the theater, which is considered the most prestigious cultural institution in Slovakia, also resonated with the former star of the marquis series Dunaj, at your service Matúša Kvietik. “I apologize for the following words, which will probably come out of me. I told myself that I would not comment on politics. I tried to be apolitical,” he stated on December 30 on Instagram in the VIDEO that you can find at the beginning of the article.
He openly admitted that he was overcome by strong emotions. “The current situation that happened in the CIS turned me off, respectively the reaction to it, which arose in response to this situation, turned me into a “non-mlato” and I can’t help but comment on it in some way. The fact that they fired the young actors… as far as my information is correct, that we fire the young out of respect for the elders, that’s twisted. It makes absolutely no sense. It just happens,” he remarked to the theater management.
He wanted to point out a thing that would not give him peace. “You know, it rather shocks and annoys me that everyone keeps giving the same statuses, the same dissatisfied expressions in written form. Maybe someone will make a video about it, but no one will do anything more about it” the grandson of the late legend Štefan Kvietik († 90) is angry.
He is convinced that the whole matter should have been resolved much earlier. “The fact that this was happening to those actors was known before it was publicized. It was known in that theater that it was happening. Then something should have been done about it. Then someone should have stood up and said, but no one did. Again and again no one did anything and now we have spilled milk and we are all going to wonder that how could we have gotten to this point,” he scolded his colleague.
He publicly criticizes that calls for change and protests remain ineffective. “There is constant shouting in the squares about some kind of change, no change has come. There is constant shouting about some kind of cultural strike. Where is the cultural strike? I will join, please. We’re just constantly in some verbal level of disapproval that doesn’t work. She doesn’t work. It didn’t work and it won’t work,” believes the Slovak artist.
He draws attention to the lack of reaction on the part of the competent authorities. “Opinion-making institutions that finally have some ambition with this and could do something about it on the basis of their severity (seriousness, editor’s note)… they do nothing about it. They don’t do anything about it around here. There are big words. They are big words. Mutual he*nia of the same opinion that the overwhelming majority of the artistic community has, but no one does anything about it. Why?” asks the TV star at the end.
