Stanislav Štepka: HOW WE SEARCHED FOR EACH OTHER
It happened four hundred years ago in Radošina, when an unfaithful woman, Mária Poljaková, suddenly left her husband – a strange man, Macko Poljak – and fled to Trnava. In the village, which was then a city, this caused an unprecedented stir at that time, especially because a similar situation could be repeated in other houses! And so the frightened mayor of Radošina sent Poljaková's friend, the old maid Etela Vlasáková, to find the unfaithful woman in Trnava and bring her back to the village. So much for an authentic letter from the Trnava city archive from 1548.
In our play, Vlasáková sets off on a journey, but not only gets lost along the way, but also gets lost in time. And so she travels for years, but also centuries, and suddenly, on her endless journey of search, she meets not only famous and interesting historical figures, but also impoverished pilgrims, the first workers, and she has passionate conversations with them (doctor Ján Jessenius, Napoleon Bonaparte, Anton Bernolák, Ján Hollý, Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban, Michal Hodža, Adela Ostrolúcka, Andrej Sládkovič, Marína, Anička Jurkovičová, Jonáš Záborský, Svetozár Hurban Vajanský, Mikoláš Aleš, a male and female worker in the factory, PO Hviezdoslav, Jozef Murgaš, etc.).
He meets them not in the familiar historical form. He speaks to them precisely when our greats – and those like them – are searching, doubting, when they are ordinary, vulnerable people, which, of course, brings a whole series of unexpected, surprising and especially comical situations to the production. An important component of the production are the songs of Ján Melkovič (and other composers) interpreted by the present live musical group, the RND singing and dancing ensemble.
The play How We Were Looking for You , written by Stanislav Štepka based on an authentic letter from 1584, had its first premiere in 1983 at the Trnava Theatre, directed by Juraj Nvota (it had its second premiere at the Slovak National Theatre in 2003). And it is Juraj Nvota who is also the director of the new, revised, and supplemented version of Štepka's poetic play.
And because ideas about our national journey and the search for identity are still extremely relevant in our society, we decided to present the play in our theater - in a new, up-to-date authorial and directorial form.
Location : National Theatre / Historic Building