Emília Vášáryová was born in 1942 in Horná Štubňa, a village in central Slovakia. She grew up with her younger sister Magda in an educated family and an enlightened cultural environment. Since childhood, she acted in amateur theatre and practiced gymnastics. After graduating from high school, she graduated from acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (1963) and became a member of the New Scene theatre in Bratislava. In 1964, she joined the ensemble of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, of which she is a part to this very day. She has been teaching for many years at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, helping create a number of great actors – she was appointed a university professor in 1999.
The characters she played on the first Slovak scene can hardly be counted. They include Roxane from Cyrano de Bergerac, Sophocles’ Antigone, Natasha from War and Peace, Masha from Three Sisters, Nanny from Romeo and Juliet, and many more from the classical world repertoire. However, the acting life of Emilie Vášáryová is also characterised by a tight relationship with modern drama, to the works of J. P. Sartre, P. O. Enquist, Thomas Bernhard, Edward Albee, Eugène Ionesco, Yasmina Reza, McNally and others, whose characters she sometimes portrays beyond her mother stage – in Divadlo Na zábradlí, the Drama Club, L+S Štúdio or Divadlo Aréna.
The filmography of Emília Vášáryová is no less rich. In the 1960s, she indelibly occupied the audience’s collective consciousness alongside Jan Werich in Vojtěch Jasný’s comedy The Cassandra Cat. Dozens of great roles followed (in Slovak and Czech film and television); the more recent ones include the Cosy Dens, Up and Down, Václav, the film version I Served the King of England or in the recent TV production Archiv.
She received many awards for her characters in theatre and film, especially after 1990. She won the Alfred Radok Award, the Crystal Wing Award, multiple DOSKY Awards, the Jozef Kroner Award, the Czech Lion, the Slovak Literary Fund Award, the Karel Čapek Award, and many others. In 2000, she was awarded the title Actress of the Century in a Slovak journalist poll. In 2003, Czech President Václav Havel awarded her the Czech Medal of Merit.
Emília Vášáryová is not resting on her laurels – she is still embarking on adventures. It is no coincidence that she has good relationships with directors both of her generation and younger. For example, on the Slovak National Theatre stage, we can see her multi-layered study of Brecht’s Mother Courage – produced by JAMU graduate Martin Čičvák, where she likes to play alongside her former students from the Academy of Performing Arts.
Emília’s acting is highly professional, perfect and thoughtful, but its rationality never outweighs the humanity of the character, its vulnerability or unexpected courage.
It is not an act locked in itself, but rather an open fantasy, revealing the hidden possibilities of humankind.
There is no doubt that Emília Vášáryová, with her life and artistic work, constantly brings together the Slovak and Czech nations, and she is also a huge acting personality in the European or maybe even worldwide context.
Emília Vášáryová – laudatio delivered by Zbyněk Srba
Your Magnificence, Spectabiles, Honorabiles, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Guests.
It is my great pleasure and honour to present at this public ceremonial meeting of the JAMU Arts Council a proposal for an honorary doctorate on behalf of the Faculty of Theatre, the personality proposed to receive the honour has significantly contributed to the development of Slovak and Czech theatre, cinematography and theatre education with her distinctive and unrepeatable art and we welcome her with joy and respect on the grounds of our institution, Mrs Emília Vášáryová.
Professor Vášáryová’s acting work is respectably varied and rich. In her now hundreds of roles in theatre, film, television and radio, she presents herself as an extraordinary and charismatic actress, a personator of great complicated characters and tragic heroines, not shying away from comedic roles and always portraying modern drama characters in an excellent way. All her characters are united by a very demanding, honest and purposeful search for all the secrets, complexities and nooks and crannies of the portrayed character, a deep emotionality she combines in remarkable harmony with rationality and attention to detail. It is as if this unique birefringence is reflected in her reminiscence of Jan Werich, about whom she said the following in one of her interviews: “He knows all about the elusiveness and fleeting nature of life with all its hardships and feel-good moments, about the futility of life, about the love and kindness with which he embraces me as if he was my old father. He told me: »Emília, that feels like sweet Tuscany. But how do I reconcile this with those Hungarian dragoons who I feel constantly marching in Vášáryová.«”
Dear colleagues, let me take this rare opportunity to recall, at least briefly, some chapters from the life and creative career of our guest.
Emília Vášáryová comes from the village of Horná Štubňa in the Martin district of Slovakia. She grew up in Banská Štiavnica with her younger sister Magda in an educated family and an enlightened cultural environment. Although she acted in amateur theatre as a child, she never really wanted to be an actress. She practiced gymnastics, took interest in astronomy and wanted to study psychology, art history and languages. Her parents – both teachers – consistently led her to a love of literature and self-education, purposefulness, self-discipline and consistency. These are the qualities that accompany her throughout her studies and, in fact, also later in her entire professional life. After graduating from high school, she graduated from acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (1963), at that time, paradoxically, she thought of these studies only as a prelude to her other coveted fields. At school, however, she met personalities who permanently influenced her life and steered her to a lifelong career in arts. Extremely talented and educated actresses are soon noticed by theatre and film directors. Immediately after graduation, she became a member of the New Scene ensemble. In 1964, she joined the ensemble of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, of which she is a part to this very day.
It is really an extraordinarily long list of characters she excellently portrayed on the first Slovak scene. They include, for example, Roxane from Cyrano de Bergerac, Sophocles’ Antigone, Natasha from War and Peace, Masha from Three Sisters, Nanny from Romeo and Juliet, Iphigénie from Goethe’s Iphigénie en Tauride and many more from the classical world repertoire. However, the acting life of Emilie Vášáryová is also characterised by a tight relationship with modern drama, to the works of J. P. Sartre, P. O. Enquist (recall, for example, the famous and often repeated production of From the Life of the Rain Worms with Martin Huba), Thomas Bernhard, Edward Albee, Eugène Ionesco, Yasmina Reza, McNally and others, whose characters she sometimes portrays beyond her mother stage – in Divadlo Na zábradlí, the Drama Club, L+S Štúdio or Divadlo Aréna. On her theatrical journey, she met the most important Slovak and Czech directors, playwrights, scenographers and other personalities (for all of them we can name, for example, Ľubomír Vajdička, Peter Mikulík, Vladimír Strnisko, Martin Porubjak, J. A. Pitínský, Milan Čorba etc.).
She has been teaching for many years at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, helping create a number of great actors – she was appointed a university professor in 1999. For many years, she has been leading her students to hold themselves to the same demanding standards she held herself to throughout her life.
The filmography of Emília Vášáryová is no less rich. She made her debut in front of the camera in the Slovak-Hungarian film St. Peter’s Umbrella. She established herself in Czech film in the early 1960s, shortly after graduating, when she starred in Vojtěch Jasný’s film The Cassandra Cat (1963), portraying the mysterious dancer Diana alongside Jan Werich and becoming indelibly known to Czech and Slovak audiences. The most famous titles in Emilie Vášáryová’s extensive filmography certainly include the fantastic story A Jester’s Tale (directed by Karel Zeman, 1964) and the drama People on Wheels, during the production of which she met the legend of Czechoslovak film Martin Frič.
Dozens of major roles in Slovak and Czech film and television followed. In the 1990s, for example, she took played a significant part in Roman Petrenko’s Hazard and in the generational story directed by Eva Borušovičová, Modré z nebe. She also used her extensive acting experience in Martin Šulík’s Orbis Pictus (1997) and in Cosy Dens (1998) by Jan Hřebejk. She also starred in his next film Upside Down, for which she won the Czech Lion for the best actress in a leading role. There were many other films in which she participated in a significant and successful manner, let’s mention, for example, Hřebejk’s Beauty in Trouble or Jasný’s Which Side Eden; she also appeared in Václav, in the film version of I Served the King of England, or in a recent television production Archiv.
She received many awards for her characters in theatre and film, especially after 1990. She won the Alfred Radok Award in 1996 for the best acting performance (younger sister in T. Bernhard’s Ritter, Dene, Voss, Divadlo Na zábradlí), the Crystal Wing Award in 1999 – (Agnes in Albee’s A Delicate Balance), multiple DOSKY Awards, the Jozef Kroner Award for the most remarkable acting performance in 1999 (for the Old Woman in Ionesco’s Chairs). She also received the Slovak Literary Fund Award, the Karel Čapek Award and many others. In 2000, she was named the Actress of the Century in a Slovak journalist poll. In 2003, Czech President Václav Havel awarded her the Czech Medal of Merit.
Emília Vášáryová is never satisfied with achievements of the past – she keeps taking on new risks and embarking on a never-ending search. She never projects herself into her, rather she thoroughly examines the character from all possible angles, always trying to penetrate to its very essence at any cost. And she always tries to pinpoint the character’s issues. She studies it consistently. From outside and inside alike.
It is no coincidence that she has good relationships with directors both of her generation and younger. For example, on the Slovak National Theatre stage in Bratislava, we can see her rich and multi-layered study of Brecht’s Mother Courage – produced by JAMU graduate Martin Čičvák, where she likes to play alongside her former students from the Academy of Performing Arts. When asked rather provocatively in an interview with playwright Martin Porubjak if she “… liked that insufferable Mother Courage?”, she answered: “I do like her! I have played all sorts of “simple” comedic characters in my life. Mother Courage has everything characteristic of such character, but at the same time she also has a very ironic, intellectual view of herself – she is wise, stupid, selfless, selfish, kind, cruel and many more at the same time. She has and is everything! So what more could you want than to have the opportunity to embody such a character!”
Emília Vášáryová’s acting is extremely professional and well-thought-out, but its rationality never prevails over the human nature of her characters; on the contrary, she kicks their spiritual dimensions wide open.
There is no doubt that the life and work of Emília Vášáryová keeps bringing the Slovak and Czech nations together in a continuous, unprecedented manner and with admirable energy. Emília Vášáryová is an extraordinary actor in the field of theatre and film alike. She deserves no lesser credit for educating the youngest generation of theatre actors.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me wish Mrs Emília Vášáryová, on behalf of us all, a lot of creative power and energy on her admirable journey, on the never-ending search for the diverse secrets of contemporary theatre, and let me express our deep respect and admiration for all the courage, energy and extraordinary nobility with which she has tackled this task throughout her life. Of course, this includes a sincere thank you for how her extraordinary talent and will have enriched us all.
Your Magnificence, I would like to address you with a request to comply with the proposal of the Faculty of Theatre JAMU and award Professor Emília Vášáryová the title of Doctor honoris causa of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Brno.
doc. MgA. Zbyněk Srba, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty of Theatre JAMU