Are you interested in the current situation of the theatre in Slovakia? In that case, I would like to announce that the theatre company that was chosen from among several Slovak candidates to come to Wiesbaden, has just lost the roof above its head.

How is that possible? It’s simple! The venue – not a very theatrical space, by the way: no stage, no backstage, no facilities, a minimum of lanterns and hardly any technical equipment – simply called A4, was at the city’s centre and was used by various independent theatre companies, among them Theatre SkRAT. And the building’s owner, the Slovak republic’s Ministry of Culture and its organisation team simply decided to rent it out.

The committee that makes the decisions was replaced and the building was allotted to a perfidious group headed by a magician. This is not a typo or a misprint, you are correctly reading: MAGICIAN. And Theatre SkRAT has to give up after eight years.

At the time of writing, Theatre SkRAT is homeless. For the moment (end of January 2012), they have found refuge at the Polish institute in Bratislava within the framework of a project. Nobody knows what the future will bring. The Ministry of Culture shows no interest in the matter at all.

How is that possible? It’s simple! The venue – not a very theatrical space, by the way: no stage, no backstage, no facilities, a minimum of lanterns and hardly any technical equipment – simply called A4, was at the city’s centre and was used by various independent theatre companies, among them Theatre SkRAT. And the building’s owner, the Slovak republic’s Ministry of Culture and its organisation team simply decided to rent it out.

The committee that makes the decisions was replaced and the building was allotted to a perfidious group headed by a magician. This is not a typo or a misprint, you are correctly reading: MAGICIAN. And Theatre SkRAT has to give up after eight years.

At the time of writing, Theatre SkRAT is homeless. For the moment (end of January 2012), they have found refuge at the Polish institute in Bratislava within the framework of a project. Nobody knows what the future will bring. The Ministry of Culture shows no interest in the matter at all.

Martin Porubjak, catalogue of festival New Plays from Europe, p. 179