Birth date

26. 07. 1944  [en] Radošina  

Fields of interest

próza, dráma, scenáristika

Briefly about author

Stanislav Štepka is an original and versatile theatre artist: he is a dramatist, lyricist, actor, director, founder and chief of the Radošina Naïve Theatre. He has performed in almost all of the plays he has written, wrote the song lyrics and from the outset also directed. In 963 he founded in Radošina, his native village, an amateur theatre group. The first performance was the staging of his play Dumb Faces, or the Animal Is Spelled with a Capital A. There were three performances. From 1968, the group has called itself the Radošina Naïve Theatre and from 1970 it has performed in Bratislava. As an author and actor, Štepka was influenced by the activities of Prague theatres at the end of the Fifties and the beginning of the Sixties, particularly by the Semafor theatre of J. Suchý and J. Šlitr. Of the Slovak authors, he was most influenced by M. Lasica and J. Satinský. He was inspired by a specific genre of literary cabaret, a product of big city environment. Štepka`s innovation combined the characteristic features of a village amateur theatre and city intellectual cabaret. He writes and performs his plays in his native Radošina dialect mixed with city jargon. At the same time, we find here echoes of Viennese local farce and commedia dell`arte. Particularly so in the sharply defined typology of the characters and their plebeian point of view. The protagonists of Štepka`s plays are like the little characters of Nestroy who perceive the world in a childishly guileless manner and thus reveal its absurdity and abnormality. The Radošina Naïve Theatre is naïve in the manner in which the clowns are naïve, or in which Charlie Chaplin is naïve. It is exactly the "look from below" that is unmasking, penetrating, and plebeian. It speaks to a very wide audience, and during the forty years of its existence it became a well-known and popular phenomenon. Many expressions of Štepka`s dramatic characters became legendary and entered the spoken language. In his plays, Štepka often parodies social conditions, clichés, ideological phrases (some plays were therefore censored and prohibited by the Communist regime). Štepka does not shy away from the pathos of a moralist, albeit relativized by his kind irony. Many of his plays unmask national myths (particularly Jánošík) and critically interpret Slovak history (How we Searched for Ourselves , How it Was , Erase it and Write it Down). Stanislav Štepka is one of today`s most popular theatre authors and actors, and the RNT is one of the most popular theatre ensembles in Slovakia.

Briefly about production

plays (a selection from 37 plays):
Dumb Faces or the Animal Is Spelled with a Capital A (Nemé tváre alebo zver sa píše s veľkým Z, 1963), Autopsy (Pitva, 1966), He Fell Off the Oak Tree and Relaxed (Z duba spadol, oddýchol si, 1968), Jánošík (Jánošík, 1970), Human Flesh (Človečina, 1971), Elizabeth the Horrible or the Blood Story (Alžbeta hrozná alebo Krw story, 1975), Slovak Tango (Slovenské tango, 1979), How I Entered into Myself (Ako som vstúpil do seba, 1981), Wedding (Svadba, 1982), How it Was (Ako to bolo, 1984), The Bride Who Was Sold to Kubo (Nevesta predaná Kubovi, 1984, co-author J. Suchý), Pavilion B (Pavilón B, 1984), Women`s Ward (Ženské oddelenie, 1987), S. S. World (Loi Svet, 1988), Hotel Europe (Hotel Európa, 1988), Erase it and Write it Down (Vygumuj a napíš, 1989), Where Did We Get this From (Kam na to chodíme, 1991, co-authors M. Lasica and J. Satinský), Cherishing (Láska-nie, 1992), Zodiac (Zverokruh, 1994), Birth Mark (Materské znamienko, 1995), Cinema Progress (Kino Pokrok, 1995), Daddy (Tata, 1996), The End Station (Konečná stanica, 1997), A Bee in Winter (Včela v zime, 1999), The List of Predators (Súpis dravcov, 2000), Instruction for Use (Návod na použitie, 2001)

selected plays:
The RNT Selections I (Výber RND I, 1983), The RNT Selections II (Výber RND II, 1989), Paternal Birth Marks, or Seven Naïve Sins (Otcovské znamienka alebo Sedem naivných hriechov, 1998)

WORKS TRANSLATED
Štepka`s plays had been translated mainly into languages of countries where the Radošina Naïve Theatre with its actors performed.
Jánošík (Czech), Human Flesh (Czech), Slovak Tango (Russian, Polish, German, Czech, Hungarian), Black Sheep (Polish, German), Pavilion B (German, Czech), What is it All About (French), Women`s Ward (Czech), Zodiac (English, German), Heaven, Hell, Paradise (German)
Human Flesh of Stanislav Štepka (2000 Czech, four plays: Jánošík, Human Flesh, Women`s Ward, and Pavilion B)

Biography for author

Born 26 July 1944 in Radošina. In 1965 he graduated from a teacher`s college in Nitra. Between 1964 and 1969 he worked as a teacher in Bojná. From 1970 to 975, he was an editor of Učiteľské noviny in Bratislava. From 1976 to 1983 he was an editor of Slovak Radio entertainment programmes in Bratislava. In 1963 he co-founded the Radošina Naïve Theatre of which he has been director since 1983.

about author

In the Radošina Naïve Theatre a very original drama appeared that speaks about today`s people: of their worries, joys, bitterness and hopes much more than so-called "serious" contemporary drama. The author of these strange, bitter comedies is Stanislav Štepka. He views his contemporaries with merciless curiosity and finds
a lot of unattractive features in them. However, he is also full of wise tolerance and pardons them a lot. He is able to capture in jewel-like, true, vivid detail, to "overhear" a phrase or a bizarre mixture of village dialect and city jargon.

Whenever the founder of the Radošina Naïve Theatre writes about the beginnings of his theatre he never forgets to mention the Semafor. He acknowledges his debt to our theatre the way we acknowledge ours to the Liberated Theatre (Osvobozené divadlo). To put it simply, we all acknowledge some debts. The Liberated Theatre mentioned the brothers Fratellini and the silent movies. Whom the Fratellinis mentioned, I don`t know, but I guess they went back somewhere for sure. It feels warm to know that my work was good for somebody, one who didn`t imitate us because he was inventive enough himself. A question crops up: How come that Štepka mentions our Semafor as the source of his own original and inimitable theatre? I think we could find the key in our view of humour. At least one of the keys. The humour of Semafor and of the Radošina theatre are not much alike, but I know and have found out that we laugh at the same things, Stano and I.

Sample

JÁNOŠÍK (extracts from the First Act)