Ľubomír Vajdička

* 1944

  • „My mother, who was lying in the hospital in Levice with the broken leg was watching TV. She didn't hear very well; she only saw the screen. And the first time I was there, she said: ´What are you doing in Bratislava? What on earth are you doing out there?‘ And I didn't want to scream at that time, she was deaf, so I syllabized to her: ´We want to destroy the Communists, Mom.‘ And she said: ´You don't destroy them,‘ poor mom sighed. And then when I was there for the second time, the doctor who led me to her wore a tricolour and my mother blinked and pointed to the doctor that it was all right now.“

  • "Because of all sorts of, let's say "scratches“, which I had in the past, it was not so easy to go abroad. I know that the first time I was given the opportunity to go abroad, in fact, all these passport issuing authorities, and that was security, were doing everything possible to keep the exit clause from me.” „Do you remember which year it was? “ „I know exactly because I had an invitation to international theatre training. It was an international theatre science training in Venice that was held every year, and they asked each of these countries to send somebody there and I managed once that my country wanted to send me there. And again, I found out by sorts of detours and through some friends that State security in Martin kept my exit clause. Because your passport was useless unless you had an exit clause in it. They kept my exit clause and didn't want to give it to me. They pretended that they don´t have it. Many have experienced this.”

  • “I remember a kindergarten very well that we learned and recited poems about Stefanik. Then in the first grade at school, it was already in 1950, but still some children could not realize it, our parents probably already realized it ... But I remember exactly the day when the teacher came to the classroom and said that from now she is not a Mrs. teacher but a “comrade teacher”. I also remember in the third grade when „Mr.“ teacher came – it was strange that we were still naming him „Mr.“ teacher – and he said: ‘Pupils, stand up!‘ And told us: 'Mr. President Klement Gottwald has died.' I remember how we had to wear a black belt when Stalin died, which my father suffered badly. But we had it ordered at school that we should have had sadness, so I don't know how old I was, about nine years old and I obviously strongly insisted that I must wear the black tape too. So, we were looking for a black tape around the house, then my mother ripped it off from a hat and put it on my hand because we all had to have it at school.“

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    Bratislava, 07.05.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:17:20
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th century
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The artist experiences everything more intensively

Ľubomír Vajdička was born on May 28, 1944 in Trenčín. He grew up in Martin, where the communist regime relocated his father, the evangelical priest Ľudovít Vajdička. Despite the good results, he could not study at grammar school due to the political situation. He graduated in 1962 at the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering in Bratislava. Since childhood, he perceived desire for theatre, which led him to study theatre science. Thanks to his experience with directing, he has been involved as a director at the Slovak National Uprising Theatre in Martin since 1968. Then he appeared as a director at the National Theatre in Prague in 1983 and 1984. Since 1983 he moved from Martin to the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. During the Velvet Revolution, he took part in an assembly in the Drama of the Slovak National Theatre, where the actors joined the nationwide strike of theatres. He is currently working in addition to directing as a pedagogue at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.