Graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava where he majored in theatre direction. He took a professional internship at the Summer Academy for Performing Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2000, he founded a theatre group called phenomenontheatre – an independent platform for contemporary theatre with primary focus on movement and non-verbal theatre forms. In the same period, he was a guest dramaturg at the Puppet Theatre in Žilina. Since 2009, he has been the artistic director for the City Theatre in Žilina where he works as a director with mostly young actors. As a leading personality of the Žilina theatre, he has supported a bold repertory with a preference for contemporary Slovak and international drama and initiated the creation of original plays for the house in Žilina. As a director and dramaturg, he has shown a preference for contemporary German drama and focused on unconventional interpretations of classical non-dramatic texts.
Some productions directed by Eduard Kudláč were successfully presented abroad at international festivals of alternative theatre, e.g. his production of Description of a Picture (City Theatre Žilina, 1999). The production titled the correction of a correction (2000) was performed in theatres in Prague, Ostrava, Novosibirsk, Athens, Dortmund and Regensburg. Kudláč is a laureate of the Dosky Award in the Discovery of the Season category for his production of I Am Absolute Will (Academy of Performing Arts, 1997). His productions also received several important awards at the Nová Dráma/New Drama festival. In addition to full-time work at his home theatre, he regularly works as a guest artist for numerous Slovak theatres (State Theatre Košice, Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre, L+S Studio Bratislava).
Description of his work:
Eduard Kudláč belongs to the middle generation of contemporary directors and is a representative of the poetics of directorial minimalism. Early in his artistic career, he started to search for new possibilities in theatre focusing on non-verbal means of expression and ways to fragment the story. Sophisticated concepts and structures of peculiar subject matters, striking movement expressivity and non-verbal action of the protagonists were inspired by non-dramatic texts, internet blogs or online chats. These fully unfolded in Kudláč’s own theatre group phenomenontheatre. He used lighting effects from various sources to extend his exhibitionist stage direction which in this type of platform has often relied on an empty, or almost empty stage. In his work with actors, he strove for simplicity and authenticity of performance, for example in Feed the Snake on Your Chest I and II, often using the vulgarity of life in the street. A common feature of his productions is the revealing and naming of the symptoms of various human ills, paranoias, diseases or social transformations. He likes to avoid abstraction and heightened interpretations and rather tends to analyze specific problems and topical issues.
Kudláč has maintained the prominent features of his autonomous directorial method (stage minimalism, vividness, moderation, nearly geometrical precision and simple stage design) – which he has cultivated in his own theatre – also when staging plays in bricks-and-mortar theatres, even though in these productions he focuses mostly on the story. Besides strong inclination to modern contemporary theatre and productions of plays written by international playwrights (Ivan Vyrypaev and Roland Schimmelpfennig), Kudláč uses his unconventional directorial style to produce world classics of both drama and prose. Although he frequently becomes an active dramaturg of some of his productions, dramatizations of works of prose – ranking among the most successful in his work – were prepared in collaboration with dramaturg Daniel Majling (Crime and Punishment) and Czech dramaturg and playwright Iva Klestilová (Madame Bovary). Eduard Kudláč works in tandem with his wife, stage designer and costume artist Eva Kudláčová-Rácová.
List of directed productions:
1997 / Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava / Ladislav Klíma: I Am Absolute Will
1997 / Puppet Theatre, Žilina / Tomáš Hudcovič, Marek Šimko, Eduard Kudláč: The Snow Queen
1998 / City Theatre, Žilina / William Shakespeare: Macbeth
1999 / City Theatre, Žilina / Heiner Müller: Description of a Picture
2000 / phenomenontheatre and J.A.V. Theatre, Žilina / Monika Mitášová, Eduard Kudláč: the correction of a correction
2002 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina / Eduard Kudláč: exercise 1
2003 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina / Roman Ondák, Eduard Kudláč: angle
2005 / Pôtoň Theatre, Bátovce / Katarína Mišíková: I Forgot
2005 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina / Rodrigo García: I Bought a Spade at IKEA to Dig My Own Grave
2006 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina / Walk/Walking
2007 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina and Station Žilina-Záriečie, Žilina / Eduard Kudláč: Feed the Snake on Your Chest Part I: Stamina Report
2007 / Station Žilina-Záriečie, Žilina / Nicoleta Esinencu, Eduard Kudláč: Fuck You, EU. RO. PA./Zuckerfrei
2007 / Slovak Chamber Theatre, Martin / Roland Schimmelpfenning: Before/After
2008 / phenomenontheatre, Žilina / Eduard Kudláč: Feed the Snake on Your Chest Part II: Reality Report
2008 / City Theatre Žilina / Sergi Belbel: Cell Phone
2009 / City Theatre Žilina / Roland Schimmelpfenning: The Woman from the Past
2009 / City Theatre Žilina / Roland Schimmelpfenning: Push Up 1-3
2010 / City Theatre Žilina / Peter Handke: Underground Blues
2011 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / Sarah Ruhl: Dead Man’s Cell Phone
2011 / City Theatre Žilina / Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Michaela Zakuťanská: The Idiot
2011 / City Theatre Žilina / Roland Schimmelpfenning: CET (Central European Time)
2012 / City Theatre Žilina / Viliam Klimáček: Beat (Everyone Has Their Own Rhythm)
2012 / L+S Studio, Bratislava / Peter Turrini: Finally, the End…
2012 / City Theatre Žilina / Iva Klestilová: Leaves Rustling in the Sistra
2012 / State Theatre Košice / Jonáš Záborský: Foundling
2012 / Alexander Duchnovič Theatre, Prešov / Fiodor Sologub: Poor Devil
2012 / State Theatre Košice / Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Daniel Majling: Crime and Punishment
2013 / City Theatre Žilina / Dea Loher: Bluebeard (Hope of Women)
2013 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / Gustave Flaubert, Iva Klestilová: Madame Bovary
2013 / City Theatre Žilina / Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Daniel Majling: Crime and Punishment
2014 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / Ivan Vyrypaev: Illusions
2014 / Academy of Performing Arts / Eduard Kudláč: Sum Spiro Spero
2014 / City Theatre Žilina / Dea Loher: Thieves
2014 / L+S Studio Bratislava / Yevgeny Grishkovetz: All Quiet in the East
2014 / City Theatre Žilina / Ivan Vyrypaev: The Drunks
2015 / National Theatre Prague, Czech Republic / Chanoch Levin: The Labour of Life
2015 / L+S Studio Bratislava / Michaela Doležalová, Janka Ryšánek Schmiedtová: Three Graces from Formica
2015 / City Theatre Žilina / Ivan Vyrypaev: Illusions
2016 / Drama Department of the Slovak National Theatre / Dea Loher: Innocence
2016 / City Theatre Žilina / Roland Schimmelpfennig: Idomeneus
2016 / City Theatre Žilina / Daniel Doubt: Resurrection
2016 / Petr Bezruč Theatre, Ostrava, Czech Republic / Mohamed Rouabhi: Arnaques, Cocaïne et Bricolage
2017 / agency production / Florian Zeller: The Lie
2017 / City Theatre Žilina / Ivan Vyrypaev: Unbearably Long Embraces
Awards:
1997 / Dosky – award in the Discovery of the Season category for the production of Ladislav Klíma’s play I Am Absolute Will
2006 / Special Prize of the Jury at the 2006 Nová dráma/New Drama festival for the production I Bought a Spade at IKEA to Dig My Own Grave
2008 / Award for Best Staging of a contemporary international play at the 2008 Nová dráma/New Drama festival for the production Before/After
2008 / Surprise Award at the 2008 Nová dráma/New Drama festival for the production of Feed the Snake on Your Chest. Part I: Stamina Report
2008 / the Literary Fund Prize in the Theatre category for directing the production The Woman from the Past
2009 / Award for best staging of a contemporary international play at the 2009 Nová dráma/New Drama festival for the production Cell Phone
2011 / Special Prize of the Jury at the 2011 Nová dráma/New Drama festival for the production of Underground Blues
Videos from productions:
Dead Man’s Cell Phone, 2010
archive of the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YbqpaSw714
The Drunks, 2014
archive of the City Theatre Žilina
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK-xp2wgz0I
Innocence, 2016
archív of the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava
The video can be found at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppKkYy-jVr4
