Romathan Theatre

In May 1992 the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic founded with its decree the ROMATHAN Theatre in Košice.

Anna Koptová was appointed the first director of the theatre, the first playwright was Daniela Hivešová-Šilanová and the artistic director and director in one person was Ján Šilan. The opening performance was the drama- The Place for Romanies- Than perdal o Roma (staged in 1992). It is a music and dramatic piece showing the history of Romanies until present times. This drama was directed by Ján Šilan. Recently the Romathan Theatre has already had in its rich repertoire 50 staged opening performances. They have presented their rich repertoire, consisting mostly of Roma works, in European countries (e.g. in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, in other important European countries) and their capitals as well as in other regions and their cultural centres – which the Romathan Theatre has developed vivid relations with Belgium, Austria, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The establishment of a professional theatre was motivated by the effort to make the conditions for spreading, developing and stabilising culture and cultured manners of minorities living in Slovakia equal. Theatre was also given more missions - to spread, propagate, promote and partially preserve four basic forms of Roma culture. Oral interpretation and language (theatre plays, song lyrics), song singing (heritage of the old Roma song), music (typical Roma orchestra led by Karol Adam) and dance.

Naturally, the original fundaments of the Roma culture and art are rooted in the instrumental expression- and in its instrumental composition- in the typical Roma orchestra of Karol Adam who is recently the director of the Romathan Theatre. These four basic artistic components were fully taken into account by the establishment of the Romathan Theatre and thank to their co-effect they synthesise the theatre picture- in the time horizon of the history as well as present days. The usual repertoire of the Romathan Theatre consists mostly of Roma thematic. New dramas (particularly written by contemporary Roma authors, dramaturgical workshop by the Romathan Theatre, as well as the free creation by the adaptation of fairy tales and social-historical topics) noticeably extend the theme and the dramaturgical results of the Romathan Theatre. The Theatre does not forget children and the youth, 45 per cent je fully devoted to the children audience. The staged plays have found the enthusiastic appreciation by the younger and even the youngest group of the spectators. We have similar experience from meetings with adult spectators and the Romathan Theatre has a great credit by the foreign audience. They try to fulfil the artistic, social, educational and public education postulates stated by its establishment.