Martin Bašista, a student of theatre dramaturgy and directing FDU, is also the director and leader of the theatre group Na skok in Raslavice. "The realization of The Three Sisters was lightning fast. The play, which is in Šarština, features only three actresses – the three 'sisters', which allowed us to rehearse. The original by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov fell victim, from which we took very little. The essence of the play is based on the inability of a person to take a step forward. The characters 'spin' in the vortex of time, which brings them pleasant moments, but also moments that a person would rather forget immediately. We set the plot in an ordinary village environment," explained Bašista.
Martin Bašista based on Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Theatre Ensemble NA SKOK Raslavice
Technical cooperation: Andrej Hudáček
Musical cooperation: Gabriel Mačejovský
Direction, dramaturgy, scenography, costumes: Martin Bašista
Cast: Oľga – Anežka Hudáčková, Máša – Tímea Bučková, Irina – Aneta Salokyová
With the production of TRI ŚESTRI directed by Martin Bašista the theatre ensemble Na skok won the Golden Belt (and a proposal to advance to Scénická žatva) and also the Individual Award for collective acting performance in the production of TRI ŚESTRI. Congratulations!
→Results of the Festival of the Theatre of the Young (FEDIM) 2022
→Interview with Martin Bašista about the preparation of the production of TRI ŚESTRI
Zuzana Galková's review of the performance published in the festival diary II.:
The ensemble from Raslavice transferred Chekhov's well-known classic about the inability to break free from established patterns to the Šariš valley. Director Martin Bašista stripped Masha, Olga and Irina of their muslin and dressed them in folk costumes. Instead of a samovar, there are three painted buckets on the stage, and instead of drinking Russian tea, a cockroach is crawling. In the arena, with the curtain drawn, in addition to the buckets, there are three suitcases and three chairs on the stage. And that's all. Rich folk costumes fill the rest. The soaring philosophizing about the infinite breadth of the Russian soul, transcribed into Šariština and significantly edited, is no deeper, but no shallower than a potato furrow. And if the breadth of Chekhov's Russian soul is determined by cherry orchards or birch forests, then the Slovak one can be easily measured by potato fields. Because it is sometimes difficult to get out of the rut that a person gets out of behind a tractor. All those visits that come to the Prozorovs' house at Chekhov's are arranged by the Tri sestry themselves. Instead of visits, letters arrive. And so Chekhov's bleakness takes on a new dimension. The three sisters from Valala have nothing left to do but to remember and spin in a circle of memories, a tiring but safe stereotype. Masha, Olga and Irina in their richly decorated costumes so strangely resemble a kind of paraphrase of Russian matryoshka dolls. And the way in which they rewrite and tell the story from Chekhov's pen actually resembles the mechanism of the matryoshka doll as well. The same repetition of the situation always comes out, only with a certain variation and in a more pronounced stylization. As a result, we are looking at a clever paraphrase of Chekhov's Three Sisters, or more precisely, something that can be described as "Chekhov meets the Ťapákovci". And surprisingly, this seemingly bizarre connection works, because it offers a strangely accurate commentary on Slovaks. And although it is not entirely flattering, it is definitely not offensive, it just names them accurately. And that instead of Moscow, the three from Raslavice want to go to America? Dear Anton Pavlovič, I'm sorry, but who would go to Moscow today? - Zuzana Galková
Photo: Jakub Jančo
