Dancing Plague of 1518 started with one woman. Poor, with barely enough to afford bread. She danced for an entire week, and the only thing that stopped her was death. Soon, more and more people joined in uncontrollable convulsions. Authorities called it “dancing away one’s sins” and encouraged the poisoned dancers with live music in the town square. This label led to the entire population of the Alsatian town joining the dance, as no one wanted to remain a sinner. Over the course of three months, mass hysteria claimed the lives of around 400 people. The town became a devilish spectacle, attracting onlookers from far and wide.

The current state of cultural affairs in Slovakia is a repetition of an established pattern. It has happened in other countries, and it will continue to happen. It started gradually, slowly, and almost imperceptibly. It grew to institutional proportions, and only then did we become noticeable and interesting to the outside world. On one side, sympathy; on the other, fear that it could happen to them too. And, and, but.

The performance Metamorphoses of Hospitality and Bleakness  grapples with its own confusion and dissonance of perception through the play of the „hanged man“. The moment the audience crosses the theater threshold, they become civically responsible individuals. The question is whether an answer will emerge regarding the formation of national identity, or whether Slovakia will hang like Jánošík – a bandit in a plundered land.

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