MEDIATHEK

Mojmír II or the Sunset of Empire – “How many statues do I have? Ten? A hundred? In how many countries? What?” the dead Svatopluk asks the goddess who can see into the future. Her answer brings him no joy: “I see one, in one country”. The director Rastislav Ballek is fascinated by forgotten works of Slovak literature, half-forgotten moments of history and controversial figures in Slovakia’s past. His theatre language often relies on non-dramatic materiál, which he conveys by means of markedly expressive acting and mixing theatrical devices. In the production of Mojmír II, Ballek and the author Viliám Klimáček open up, against a historical background, the conflict between western and eastern thought and culture. The historically-laden dialogue between Duke Rostislav and Duke Svatopluk contains a clash between two principles, western rationality and eastern emotionality. The suppression of religion and spirituality, and at the same time the West’s crisis of values, makes itself felt in the person of Svatopluk’s son Mojmír II, the last ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. What we see unfold in the abstract stage space, however, is not a historical excurson, but a play with a theme that contains references to Shakespeare’s King Lear and quotations from speeches by Jozef Tiso and Ivan Gasparovič. The production was awarded five Dosky (for production, direction set, music, best actress) in the 2014/2015 season. The Slovak National Theatre showed the production as part of its anniversary 95th season, devoted to Slovak works relating to the history of Slovakia.



// Credits //

Direction Rastislav Ballek
Dramaturgy Peter Kováč
Set Juraj Poliak
Costumes Katarína Holková
Music Andrej Kalinka
Puppets Ivan Martinka

Cast:
Robert Roth, Emil Horváth, Daniel Fischer, Dominika Kavaschová, Ivan Martinka / Andrej Šoltés

Premiere January 24th, 2015



// Author //

Rastislav Ballek (1971) – Studied philosophy and sociology at Comenius University, later theatre direction and dramaturgy at the VŠMU and the State Theatre School in Krakow. His work is imbued with an interest in the forgotten, marginalised works of Slovak literature, a literatury “anamnesis” of the nation and an examination of the position of the Slovak nation in society, Tiso, probably his most successful production, gained four Dosky awards in 2005 and was invited to a number of festivals. In 2009, working closely with the actor in the main role, Robert Roth, he created the production Hollyroth, which won a Dosky award for the best production of the season. Subsequently, his production of Čičvák’s play Kukura collected three Dosky nominations and invitations to a number of festivals. In the 2012/2013 season he showed the three parts of Aeschylus’ tragedy Oresteia He devoted the 2013/2014 season to the classics – in the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre he showed Macbeth, in the National Theatre, Brno, Othello and Ibsen’s Nora. There followed the award-winning Mojmír II or the Sunset of Empire in the Slovak National Theatre, a guest direction of the Hungarian play Anamnesis in the Divadlo Na zábradlí, Don Juan etc.



// Press //

Mojmír II or the Sunset of the Empire is a compelling production, to say the least. It contains the maturity of Viliám Klimáček as an author, the many-layered theatrical composition of Rastislav Ballek, fantastic artistic and musical components, and last but not least excellent performances from the actors. The production is an appeal for the decoding of both our history and our present day.
Soňa Smolková, Kod

The production requires audiences to be attentive and prepared to decode layers of meaning that work independently on one plane, but on another connect to form a new quality. It is a challenge to think about history and the present day, it is an appeal, it is provocation, it is theatre.
Oliver Rehák, www.dennikn.sk


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