Repertoire Drama
Amateurs
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
"My audience understands me", the renowned, successful and rightly sought-after Czech film, television, theatre author and director P. Zelenka could declare with humble self-confidence. Winner of numerous awards such as the Czech Lion, as well as trophies from international festivals thanks to iconic titles such as Knoflikáři (Buttoners), Samotáři (Loners) or Rok ďábla (Year of the Devil), in the recent years he has increasingly established himself as a prominent theatre artist, collaborating mainly with Dejvice Theatre and most recently with the comedy Amateurs in Prague's Studio Two. Intelligent and original humour is literally in his genes. Behind the breezy dialogue and surprising situations, his plays always hide deeper, more fundamental themes that air the topic of the so-called normality and its opposite with an understanding and revelatory mischievousness. The characters in his plays have sympathetic quirks or exceptional attitudes, overflowing with revealing self-irony and evoking kindly compassion. The play Amateurs has the same qualities, in which we find ourselves at a family reunion where a shocking revelation follows a secret among multi-generational family members and their friends. The characters and the development of relationships on the quiet terrace of a house with a fine menu are giving us more and more trouble, although we are still smiling, even laughing. Does the host, the daughter, have the right to have a child with the former, much older teacher? What threatens the career of the self-confident son Tomáš? And did the bride-to-be help her mother-in-law with videos of her younger lover? Zelenka's Amateurs explore with humour the limits of personal freedom, morality and tolerance in the family. They will entertain, but also subtly reveal conflicts and secrets that we know intimately from our own encounters. The Amateurs, directed by Eduard Kudláč, who returns to the Drama Theatre of the Slovak National Theatre, will entertain, but will also reexamine our contemporary intimate worlds and constellations in a non-violent way.
Peter Zelenka’s play Amateurs was commissioned by Studio Dva Theatre and its producer, Michal Hrubý. Its world première took place there on 28 May, 2025. Peter Zelenka’s copyright is represented by Aura-Pont s.r.o., Veslařský ostrov 62, 147 00 Prague.
The production is suitable for audiences aged 15 and over.
Smoking on stage during the performance.
Running time: 2 hrs no interval
Première June 5, 2026
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By the Bog of Cats
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
One day, the forty-something Hester Swan meets a ghost who escorts the dead to the other side. The ghost is a bit confused - he mistook the dawn for the dusk and arrived too early. As it turns out, the person she is to escort to the other world in a few hours is Hester. Irish playwright Marina Carr has rewritten the ancient story of Medea in the contemporary Irish countryside. Hester fights over a younger man who has left her for a significantly younger and wealthier bride. She is fighting for her old life, for her house, for her seven-year-old daughter Josie; she is fighting like all of us against her tragic fate. In this play, Marina Carr has exposed the basic human drives and passions - love, hatred, feelings of betrayal and the thirst for revenge - to the very core. She has situated the story of the ancient royal family in the context of Irish peasants and the nouveau riche, a setting that is familiar even to us. As a result, she moved ancient tragedy closer to tragicomedy. The world, in which the harsh reality of the countryside mingles with rumours and legends, is populated by mysterious and poetic figures of ghosts and ferocious cat-women, characters of harsh and even crude peasants, and comic characters from the local community, among whom the elderly parson plays a prominent role. The Irish adaptation of the ancient drama directed by Matúš Bachynec, who returns to the Drama Theatre of the Slovak National Theatre, is surprisingly Slovak.
The production is suitable for audiences aged 15 and over.
Runnning time: 2 hrs 50 mins with one interval
Première May 30, 2026
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Children
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
Loosely based on short stories by Božena Slančíková-Timrava
A story about children, whom we can completely suffocate with too much love, but also about strangers, to whom we can be cruel and indifferent
Declaration of Independence
Drama
The new SND building, The Blue Salon
Authorial play inspired by the life of Edward Bernays and his wife Doris Fleischman.
Embers
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
Based on the novel Candles Are Burning Out by Sándor Márai.
A riveting reconstruction of betrayal, friendship, chase and passion.
Ghosts Are Only Human
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
A bittersweet collective meditation on ageing.
Hlovík amidst the rebellious people.
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
Pastor Hlovík began to fear his own parishioners. Ever since cholera broke out, they suspected him of trying to poison them with Communion bread. Every time he went to administer the Holy Communion to the dying, he had to taste it himself first. Hlovík was not alone in this; the peasants viewed other priests, doctors, and nurses with the same kind of suspicion. Encouraged by alcohol, they went from impoliteness to open aggression. Hlovík flew from his own clergymen to a neighbouring village to hide at his colleague's, unaware that the peasants had already killed him. A thrilling journey begins, in which his life is at stake.
Hlovík medzi vzbúreným ľudom (Hlovík amidst the rebellious people) is not typical of Záborský's prose; it is a reportage. Based on eyewitness accounts, he compiled a shocking chronicle of events that occurred in eastern Slovakia during the 1831 peasant uprisings. In a factual yet captivating style, he describes Hlovík's journey, captivity, anticipation of execution, and sudden liberation. The text is full of suspense, dramatic situations, and even dark humour in places. However, Záborský's text primarily questions a whole range of ideas that we have formed about ourselves – about our dovelike nature, Christian foundations, or heroism.
There are numerous testimonies, accounts, and statements about the peasant riots of 1831, which reveal in an exciting way the circumstances under which mild-mannered and kind people become a lynching mob that, in its desire for justice, only multiplies injustices.
Running time is indicative, as the dress rehearsal is still due for the production.
Première September 12, 2026
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Hound Dog
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
This is brilliant literature about literature and a culture that is infused with irony, insight, sensitivity and comprehension.
Morena, author’s production
Drama
The new SND building, The Blue Salon
Author’s production – a small probe into th einner world of a woman turning thirty
Sigma Werther
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
Sigma Werther is a production aimed at teenagers aged 14 and above, their parents, and teachers.
THE LIFE OF GALILEI
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
A profound experience that transcends the boundaries of traditional historical drama.
The Hotel Bristol Apartment
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
A black comedy based on Roald Dahl's Skin
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
Classical Shakespearean comedy about the philandering knight Falstaff
The Owl
Drama
The new SND building, The Blue Salon
A production about different opinions, dated views, as well as mutual understanding between two generations.
The Play that Goes Wrong
Drama
The new SND building, Studio
Contemporary British comedy presents an ironic view of the world of theatre and, at the same time, pays tribute to this world
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
A spirited story about not taking things too seriously, unless your life depends on it
WATSONS
Drama
The new SND building, Drama hall
Jane Austen, the iconic British novelist, constantly speaks to us in her novels, their film and theatre adaptations, regardless of the fashion trends. Titles like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility and others rightly enthuse their admirers, they are a kind of guaranteed brand. With humour, insight and refined irony, they depict the manners and relationships of upper-class rural society in the early 19th century, but as time passes, in addition to the elegant atmosphere of costumes, gardens and balls, the themes of gender and values become increasingly prominent. In the refined art of parlour conversation lies the determined, justified effort of the self-confident heroines not to base their happiness solely on pragmatism or the romance of arranging marriages. The great contemporary English playwright Laura Wade noticed Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons and decided to both adapt it and creatively finish it. It turned out to be a blockbuster for several seasons. After many years of being brought up by her aunt, a young woman, Emma, returns to her birth family and becomes the star of the community with many suitors. However, what is sympathetically notable is the way in which she does not retreat from her position of an astonished observer. The enigmatic Laura comes to help her in her life orientation, as she playfully interacts with the unfinished literary characters from the position of a modern 21st-century woman. Our audiences, who loved the productions of Jane Eyre or Little Women directed by Marián Amsler, simply have something to look forward to again.
The production is suitable for audiences aged 14 and over.
Runnning time: 2 hrs 20 mins with one interval
Première January 31, 2026
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