Janko Martinkovič

"Since Saturday, 18 November 1989, Czech theatres have been on strike. And now a historical fact. All Prague theatres started playing at 7 p.m. Whereas on that Saturday, we played the Rozrazil theatre from 5:00. So historically, the first to go on strike were the four companies that put on Rozrazil. Because it was already at five. People came, the actors came in plain clothes. A statement was read out that in this situation, this and this happened. Now, of course, there was enough information about what exactly happened. Of course, it was also drawn from the people who were there. From me, from Milan. There were still some of our friends who were on the other side. All those alleys were full and they were just cutting like butchers, those cops. And it was said that in that situation, sorry, we can't play. That we were entering, that we were accepting the strike, and that anyone who wanted to leave could and would be refunded. And I remember two guys, like forty-five, fifty-something guys, started getting upset and saying that this was a scandal, that this was like impossible, and they were watching. And they were knocking all their neighbours, saying it's impossible, and the other one said he thought so too. Let's act, we're actors. And of course, it was the Aesthetes who exposed themselves completely like that. All these people who came to the performance, for the performance, they were going, 'Well, boys, nice,' and then the audience booed them, and when they finally got up and left - because that's where you came from, from the front, and you came across the stage, you could say. It was flat there, it wasn't like in a theatre, you have a peephole and they sit lower down. It was flat and that's how the arena was built. So when those two finally got up and left, those 350 people erupted in applause like Gott never had."

"We went with this Milan because we knew there would be something somewhere, that 17th of November. And we went to Wenceslas Square. Nothing. It's possible, so if there was something, it must be on Wenceslas Square, right? So we went to Staromák. Nothing. And still walking. And the show started, the Rozrazil show, but we were the very last ones, towards the end, it was a three-hour show and we still had time. I said: 'Milan, let's forget it, let's go, let's go to Chmelnice, there's no way we won't finish. Well, let's take the shuttles, normally from Národní and then it goes straight.' Okay, so we go to Národní. And we've gone into the lion's den, completely. And there we actually saw it all with our own eyes, the historical footage. I think that's where you can see the atmosphere and maybe the fear. The fear of the kids, especially the screaming when the cops got a step ahead. So actually, there was a wall in front of you. A wall of cops that you know are against you. Communist cops. Now it was obvious that these guys were a little bit high on something, because a normal person can't stand there. So whenever it was put forward, as the girls started screaming, there was a very different type of fear than the fear that I was going to go to the basement and there was going to be a boogeyman or something. So that's what we went through with this Milan guy. The funny thing was, I think this has been said many times by others too. It was so cold on that 17th of November 1989 that we had four sweaters and a jacket on top of that so we wouldn't freeze. So then the blow with the baton was blocked, and in fact with such a light blow it didn't even cause a bruise. But the fact was that these people were normally packed. The kids were too, because they'd been coming out of Albertov since three o'clock."