The artistic qualities of Jozef Kroner (1924 - 1998) are still remembered today thanks to dozens of films, television and radio productions. For almost thirty years, he was a solid part of the Slovak National Theatre drama ensemble. He and his wife, the actress Terézia Kronerová Hurbanová, joined the Bratislava company in 1956. They came from the theatre in Martin, where they both worked as acting protagonists playing the most demanding roles in the repertoire. Kroner was not only the cheerful commoner Kubo (1949) in the production of the same name, which he later immortalised in a television film (1965), but also the despotic monarch in the title role of Verhaeren's drama Philip II (1953) or the plotting Iago in Shakespeare's tragedy Othello (1955). Although the move to Bratislava meant an increase in the number of offers from radio, television and (domestic and foreign) film, however, the number and variety of roles in the theatre slightly decreased. Although he was the actor of all the key directors of the then drama theatre - Jozef Budský, Tibor Rakovský, Karol L. Zachar, and later also their younger colleague Petr Mikulík, he regularly played characters of eminent substance, alternating with smaller parts. The directors realised that Kroner was capable of building a rich characterisation arch not only in demanding roles (Galen in Čapek's The White Disease, 1958; Vang in Brecht's The Good Man from Szechuan, 1962; Samko Uhrík in Bukovčanov's Until the Rooster Sings, 1969; Sganarel in Molière's Don Juan, 1972, etc.). ), but also to portray small genre figures nuancedly, which in his performance took on an above-average convincing human tone. The tiny heroes and ordinary people, living their lives in peace, became the typical roles Kroner played on the stage of the Slovak National Theatre. Whether the characters were comic, dramatic or tragicomic, they were always meticulous studies of a human type, expressions so close to the audience seated in the auditorium.

 

Jozef Kroner's mastery will be commemorated with an archival recording of Johann Nepomuk Nestroy's 1968 comedy Fear of Hell, directed by Karol L. Zachar. In addition to Kroner, it also features other legends of Slovak acting - Karol Machata, Štefan Kvietik, Oldo Hlaváček, Beta Poničanová, Božidara Turzonovová, Emília Vášáryová and many others.

 

The evening will be accompanied by theatre expert Karol Mišovic from the Institute of Theatre and Film Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.