Completed the Bilingual High School in Poprad and then graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he majored in theatre direction in the class led by Peter Mikulík. While still a student, he enjoyed success with his production of Russian classics, such as The Death of Tarelkin, A Profitable Position and Summerfolk which were performed at several international theatre festivals (Bratislava, Prague, Brno, Moscow) and received several awards. In 2012, Slovak critics nominated the production A Profitable Position to receive the Dosky Award in the Best Direction of the Season category. After the completion of his master’s programme, Brutovský continued as a doctoral student and, besides other activities, also taught international students. He has been collaborating with several Slovak and Czech theatres (Bratislava, Nitra, Martin, Brno, Kladno, Prague). In 2014, he became the laureate of the Divadelní noviny journal’s Prize for Best Direction of the Season for the production Maryša at the HaTheatre. Since 2015, he has worked as the artistic director of the Slovak Chamber Theatre in Martin.
Description of his work:
Lukáš Brutovský is part of the youngest generation of Slovak contemporary directors. When selecting titles for the stage, he focuses on international, mostly Russian classics. He tends to avoid contemporary plays and directs them only sporadically (It Is the Wind That Makes the Flag, City Theatre Kladno, 2013). For Brutovský, working with classical texts and expressive interpretation thereof means to transform the texts into pure, aesthetic forms and to thoroughly construct situations which often contain anti-illusionary elements and rely visibly precise work of actors. The minimalist stage design allows the actors to concentrate on their performance and the features of their characters are manifested under maximalist requirements. Brutovský never relies on stage imagination shaped by music or a complicated visual design. The director communicates all meaning through actors and believes that when a stage is empty a person (spectator) can better focus on another person (actor).
While a student at the Academy of Performing Arts, he maintained an intense directorial-dramaturgical dialogue with dramaturg Miroslav Dacho with whom he has cooperated in most of his projects. In addition to directing plays and translating texts from German (The Parasite, The Ape and The Groom), Brutovský has written several radio and theatre plays and dramatizations (Talents, At Noon, The Trnava Group).
List of directed productions:
2009 / Studio 12 / Lukáš Brutovský: Talents
2010 / Academy of Performing Arts / Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin: The Death of Tarelkin
2011 / Bratislava Puppet Theatre / Dušan Štauder: A Stick Out of the Bag
2011 / Cervinus Theatre, Szarvas, Hungary / Michał Walczak: The Sandbox
2011 / Academy of Performing Arts / Edward Albee, Giles Cooper: Everything in the Garden
2012 / Academy of Performing Arts / Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky: A Profitable Position
2012 / Academy of Performing Arts / Maxim Gorky: Summerfolk
2013 / Andrej Bagar Theatre, Nitra / Louis Picard, Friedrich Schiller: The Parasite
2013 / City Theatre Kladno, Czech Republic / Phillip Löhle: It Is the Wind That Makes the Flag
2014 / HaTheatre, Brno, Czech Republic / Alois and Vilém Mrštík: Maryša
2014 / Slovak Chamber Theatre, Martin / Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky: The Forest
2014 / Ján Palárik Theatre, Trnava / Miro Dacho, Lukáš Brutovský: The Trnava Group
2014 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / a team of authors: The Ten Commandments (Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery)
2014 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / Peter Karvaš: Midnight Mass
2014 / Academy of Performing Arts / Thomas Bernhard: Ice Cream
2015 / Andrej Bagar Theatre, Nitra / Edmond Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac
2015 / Švanda Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic / Molière: The Misanthrope
2015 / DPM Theatre / a team of authors: September 2015
2015 / South Bohemian Theatre, České Budějovice, Czech Republic / Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Lukáš Brutovský: Kreutzer Sonata
2016 / Moravian-Silesian National Theatre, Ostrava, Czech Republic/ Pavel Vilikovský: My Father’s Diary
2016 / Slovak Chamber Theatre, Martin / Maxim Gorky: The Smug Citizens
2016 / Slovak Chamber Theatre Martin / Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: The Gamblers
2017 / Petr Bezruč Theatre, Ostrava, Czech Republic / Lukáš Brutovský: P.S. ... write back
2017 / ASTORKA Korzo ’90 Theatre, Bratislava / Sophocles: Electra
2017 / Slovak Chamber Theatre Martin / Friedrich Schiller: Love and Intrigue
2017 / State Theatre Košice / Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: Uncle Vanya
List of devised (dramatic) texts:
Cruciverbalists (2008)
Talents (2009)
One Particular Early December Evening (2009, radio play)
Quattro Formaggi (2009)
At Noon (2010)
Delay, or Rudolf’s Revenge (2012, radio play)
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (2014); part of the project The Ten Commandments
The Trnava Group (2014)
Kreutzer Sonata (2015, theatre adaptation)
Translations:
Friedrich Schiller: The Parasite
Friedrich Schiller: Love and Intrigue
Thomas Bernhard: The Universal Reformer
Thomas Bernhard: Ice Cream, 4 short dramas from the cycle The German Lunch Table
Johann Nestroy: The Ape and the Groom
Peter Zvon: Dancing Over the Tears
Awards:
2008 / 3rd place in the 2008 Drama competition for the play Talents
2009 / 1st place in the 2009 Dráma competition for the play At Noon
2014 / Award of the Divadelní Noviny journal in 2013/2014 in the drama theatre category for Best Direction of the Season for HaTheatre’s production of Maryša
Foreign language skills: English, German, Russian
Contact: brutovsky.lukas@gmail.com
Videos from productions:
The Forest, 2014
archive of the Slovak Chamber Theatre, Martin
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmKAIgwXE-s
Midnight Mass, 2014
archive of the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaR35Kq_fno
The Trnava Group, 2014
archive of the Ján Palárik Theatre, Trnava
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_vWJA7Ny6E
