On Friday, June 5, the Drama Theater of the Slovak National Theater (SND) presented the premiere of Petr Zelenka’s play Amateurs, directed by Eduard Kudláč. Several famous faces came to see the new product. The prime minister’s ex-adviser Robert Fico was also present Eduard Chmelár with a partner Diana Štrofová, actress Zuzana Kronerováthe director Jakub Kronerthe mayor of the capital Matúš Vallo or a dancer Natália Horváthová.
The actress also sat in the audience Zuzana Vačkováformer presenter of Telerán Lenka Šoošová, member of SND Drama Božidara Turzonovová, actor from the series The Promise Filip Spider and general director of the Slovak National Theatre Zuzana Ťapáková.
Our attentive reader also came to enjoy the production, who noticed that the well-known political commentator must have been overcome by fatigue during the play. He immediately took out his mobile phone and made a short video and some photos, which you can find in the gallery. While everyone around him laughed at the actors’ lines, Chmelár took a little nap. His partner was also smiling, watching the show and caressing his hand.
SND Drama Director Miriam Kičiňová said that Zelenka’s play opens up fundamental topics that are always present in the big hall. “And it brings them into an even more contemporary world, and that is the clash of old and new worlds, ways of thinking and thinking,” introduced the title, which was introduced into the drama repertoire by dramaturg Darina Abrahámová. She admitted that the “intelligent comedy” convinced her of its qualities already during the world premiere (May 28, 2025) in Studio Dva, directed by the author himself.
The play Amateri, which “maps the family and the boundaries of what is cohesion and tolerance”, will entertain the audience in Slovakia, directed and translated by Eduard Kudláč, who is returning to the SND stage for the seventh time. He cast Anna Javorková, Zuzana Fialová, Tomáš Maštalír, Zuzana Porubjaková, Richard Stanke and Juraj Loj in the production. The stage and costumes were designed by Eva Kudláčová-Rácová, the author of the music is Peter Machajdík.
“I consider myself a person who has a sense of humor and I didn’t want to let anyone else translate it. I knew who was going to play the characters, so I tried to adapt the language to how I know those people,” said the director Kudláč, saying that as a translator of the text he considered it most important to preserve the colloquial language of the situation we all know so intimately. “A family meeting that almost always ends in disaster.”
The comedy will certainly be appreciated by fans of the intelligent and original humor of Petar Zelenka, who was made famous by the films Knoflikaří, Samotáři and Rok dábla. In recent years, he has increasingly established himself as a prominent theater actor, working mainly with Dejvický divadlo and most recently with the comedy Amatéri in Prague’s Studio Dva, which also brings the theme of otherness and empathy.
