Publication: 14 October I simply saw it as a loss. Slovaks, however, had always strived to achieve the status of an entity.
Andrzej Jagodziński: You made your debut in the s. By all accounts, it was a favourable period in the culture of Czechoslovakia, although views on this matter are divided. What is your opinion in this regard? Our experience of the s was different from that of our friends in the West. To some extent, we saw the decade as a thaw period, however the experience I have gained so far makes me characterise it as merely better than the s and the s. The s gave us the opportunity to breathe a little bit easier, but it did not bring us freedom.
After all, during that period, my long-time acting partner Július Satinský and I also faced various problems with stage censorship, as our plays were banned and our performances hindered. Most certainly, it was not what you would call paradise, even though in , things worsened.
It was then that small theatres, jazz and rock bands, as well as different art groups emerged spontaneously. The cultural offer was very diverse….
Seemingly, nobody guessed that this would begin the end for Communism — although more than 30 years would pass before the regime finally collapsed. In prewar Prague, comedy partners Voskovec and Werich and their Osvobozené Divadlo enjoyed immense popularity, as did the duo Werich and Horníček after the war, but it seems that they have remained unknown outside the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Were you and your colleagues inspired by them?
