THE BLOODY SONNETS

"A song of blood: - the thought is strange and wild?! - And which?"

Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav's cycle of thirty-two Bloody Sonnets begins with this sketch of a shocking reflection, in which he speaks prophetically not only about the facts and consequences of the First World War, but also about the times to come, which are incapable of learning from the horrors of the past.

It is precisely because of this inability to influence the course of history that we must once again amplify Hviezdoslav's appeal to the cruelties of war, and thereby also purge it of its misuse under socialism.

The Bloody Sonnets is an expressive stage poem about the end of a world and a century of hope for the creation of a new one. Through striking aesthetics, original music and John Minahan's unflinching English translation, the project depicts a junkyard of ideals and utopias, a horror of biblical proportions without gods, and the fate of the individual in the howling chaos of war.

The Bloody Sonnets is a performative memorial to the vain illusions of the grandeur of nations and a silent manifesto of conscious pacifism.

(The Bloody Sonnets is in English and Slovak, with subtitles in both languages)

Duration: 70 minutes

Premiere: January 17, 2025

DIVADLO P. O. HVIEZDOSLAVA, Laurinská street 20, 811 01 Bratislava

Team:
Directing: Dávid Paška

Dramaturgy: Darina Abrahámová

Stage: Julius Leon Seiler
Costumes: Maria-Lena Poindl

Music: Samuel D. Abrahám

Cast:

B-POSITIVE: Katarína Morháčová
0-NEGATIVE: Annamária Janeková