"I am falling, I am falling... I have lost this fight, I am leaving with honor, I love this country, I love these people... build their well-being. I am leaving without hatred towards... I am happy for you, happy for you...”
Milada Horáková was unjustly convicted and executed in the largest one of the fabricated political trials that took place in the 1950s in communist Czechoslovakia. The aim of the so-called monster trials was to deter people from any criticism of the state regime. Part of a large trial, also known as “The trial of a malicious conspiracy against the republic with a group of Dr. Milada Horáková ”, there were dozens of smaller lawsuits across the country. Requests for pardon were in vain.
The then communist president Klement Gottwald, despite the insistence of world personalities such as Einstein, Churchill, Cardinal Griffin, Russel and many others, confirmed the death penalty for Milada Horáková on June 24. In total, they decided on 10 death sentences, almost 50 life sentences and other prison sentences totaling more than 7,800 years. Thanks to her steadfastness and courage, Horáková became a symbol of resistance to totalitarian power.
With utmost respect, the creators of the play dedicate the production to Mrs. Jane Kánská.
Ondrej Soth was born on January 23, 1960 in Bardejov, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He studied classical dance in Košice, and graduated in the High School of Fine Art in Bratislava in dance choreography and production. In 1983 he graduated as Master of Arts.
Soth started his career in 1984 as a choreographer at the Prague Chamber Ballet, which he continued at the Prague National Theatre, the Slovak National Theatre, the Slovak Folk Artistic Ensemble and later also in Munich, Germany. He worked as a teacher from 1990 for five years, in institutions such as High School of Fine Art in Bratislava, the Academy of Fine Art in Prague and the Prague Conservatoire. He was Head of Ballet at the Town Theatre in Labem and the State Theatre in Košice. He was the General director at the Slovak National theatre between 2010-2012, and since 2020 at the State Theatre of Košice.
He also cooperated in films such as “Perinbaba”, the screen opera “Romeo a Julie na vsi” (Romeo and Juliet in the Countryside), “Gitanes” in France and “Open to Hard” in the USA.
