Milan Lasica

Milan Lasica - interview sample

I have always been wondering whether dialogues with your colleague were written beforehand or improvised.

It depends. At the beginning it was total improvisation and we just went on stage. Later we found out we need to be more prepared and started with writing dialogues. But when performing them many times, other ideas occured and some of them we developed it or not. So some dialogues originally ten minutes long became five times longer. Sometimes we had to cut them because our performance became unnecesarilly long.

How many times were you prohibited from performing by communists?

I counted it for one of the previous interviews I gave. Thirty times.

It is quite a number.

During thirty years thirty different breaks. Some longer some shorter. One of them lasted ten years.

What can artist duo who was used to perform do, when it is prohibited from performing? What exactly were you prohibited from?

Everything. It was a problem because we were used to write to perform. When we could not perform there was no reason to write.

Your humour was known for hidden messages in your dialogues. Was it that good because of this?

Those times were in some way good for writers. When they wanted to express their thoughts they had to hide them in metaphores. This way totalitarian regime helped art. It is paradox but it was like that.

You said you were not a stage type. But you also said you went there boldly and with courage. What was the power that took you on stage anyway?

It was my desire to stand there, speak up and look at the audience laughing. That was my sole motivation. And it was stronger than my introvercy, my anxiety and me being shy in front of public.