DĚKUJEME
Kateřina Veselovská: FASCINATIONS AS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION (Experimental Poetry in DISK Theatre)
mouth will end it (from 1960s experimental poetry)
“There is a batten on the stage. There is also a pair of scales. There are people. There is silence on the stage. Nothing happens. The silence is interrupted when one actor moves a bit. The static image moves. Nothing happens. And then steps. Movement. A girl brings a grater and a bell. She leaves the bell on the stage and takes the grater behind the side curtains. Nothing happens.”
Karolina Plicková: THE EVASIVE DANCE OF THE PUPILS
Constellations I. Before I Say Yes
“Now the “Bergs” have merged their artistic talents with the Spitfire Company, one of the most outstanding contemporary physical theatre groups, and in the fall of 2016 they presented their joint multi-genre project Constellations I. Before I Say Yes. On the stage eight musicians, five dancers, a re-mixer, a conductor and the director meet to create a joint music-dance event linked by the main motif of desire.”
Karel Král: LIBEREC ISLANDS
There Are Places Fancied by Darkness…
“A rolled out sheet of paper across the table symbolizes the journey to the northernmost Rudolf Island. The paper becomes a frozen path with a small dogsled, illuminated by LED light bulbs attached to icicle-like pointers, and it’s going to conqueror the “empty space”. The dogs that pull the sled leave bloody footprints in the snow (the dogsled is pulled by a tiny string and the footprints are created by a paint roller hidden under the sled).”
Martina Ulmanová: SUCH NORMAL INFORMERS
Elites
“The production consists mainly of a series of short scenes; they come at a fast pace, no rest, no mercy. When writing the script, Jiří Havelka and the rest of the team used concrete stories from the archives of the communist secret police (even though they often combined more than one source to create a character). However, Elites is not some dramatized summary of reading material. It is a crafty and exceptionally dramatic «thick» textual structure with the ability – that any good play has – to “devastate” the spectator in several different ways: it can constrict one’s throat, make one sick, bring tears to one’s eyes.”
Vladimír Mikulka: THE STOKA SERIES IS STILL RUNNING (Parts 36-38)
Projectile, Wellness & Re re re…
“Stoka’s contemporary form began to take shape in 2012. While still a student Braňo Mosný appeared in a minor role in an autobiographical theatre-film “documentary” Attempt and gradually other actors of his generation have joined. However, the old Stoka customs are still hold true: the final form is sought collectively and all performers are also co-creators. The distinctive poetics of a cruel awkwardness has also remained.”
Ester Žantovská: THE FELLOWSHIPS OF LONELY INDIVIDUALS
An Introduction to Computers & Association of Unit Owners
“The 4+4 Days in Motion Festival in 2017 introduced the premieres of two productions with a noticeable «documentary» style approach, (which present true stories of existing people), even though they cannot be considered classic documentary theatre pieces. The given productions proceed from well-known situations, acted out as «true to life» as possible. In both cases the spectator becomes involved – either indirectly (as a participant of an apartment owners’ meeting) or directly (as an attendee of a training course). In this way the audience is not distanced from or superior to the absurdity of what is happening.”
Karel Král: THE REMAKE
The End --- Of The Human
“Staging Alexievich’s prose is essentially impossible. Even if the production, in an effort to cover the whole book, were to last several days; even if it were a masterpiece performed by great actors; rightfully it would lack the documentary authenticity of the original and the “cinematic” suggestion of retold stories. Sometimes literature can be an incompatible form for staging. In which case, the only appropriate approach might be the one chosen by the Spitfire Company. Here, except for one section, their show The End --- of the Human doesn’t tell stories from the original book.”
Jakub Škorpil: ELSWHERE IS ELSWHERE
Post-Factotum
“The thirty-ninth title of the Stoka series is Post-Factotum. As in the case of Wellness the script came to existence «through the method of collective creation», the cast is also similar and the mosaic structure revolving around a hardly definable mood rather than a theme is also analogous. The official notes confirm the apparent interpretation of the title as a response to the contemporary, so-called «post-factual». But I found that the only direct references in the production were in fact a certain interpretative strain and courage, which is certainly not meant as a criticism.”
Pavlína Hořejšová: TWO EXPERIMENTS IN ONE SEASON
Honey & The Murder of King Gonzago
“The latest season at Dejvické Theatre has not been typical. The director Miroslav Krobot and the ringmaster of Cirk La Putyka Rosťa Novák have attempted to bring together two theatrical groups which use very different means of artistic expression. Their cooperation has resulted in a romantic production called Honey, which is staged in the Jatka78 artistic space. The remainder of the Dejvice ensemble also set out on an experimental quest. Their production, called The Murder of King Gonzago, honours the 25th anniversary of Dejvické Theatre and its creators. Led by the director Jiří Havelka, the production poses many «existentially theatrical» questions.”
Karolina Plicková: A PENETRATING TANGO IN A HOT SUMMER HAZE
Constellations II: Time for Sharing
“It's difficult to talk about the most intense experiences. It’s even more difficult to write about them. It doesn’t matter whether they result from dance, drama, or whether they are completely personal, and especially when all these experiences are combined. When one witnesses a masterful theatre event, so rich in density of perceptions that it is hard to absorb it all, one can’t help but wish to fully plunge into that experience, to merge with the stage reality which expands massively in all directions, and to give up any effort to keep a distance from the work of art.”
Karel Král: “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS A SURPRISE!”
Sternenhoch
“When the golden goddess Helga finishes her aria, the Maid falls from the table, Sternenhoch’s head falls to his chest, and the light goes off. If it was not an opera, this modest scene would not be as powerful as Klíma’s finale. Yet, Acher’s music lifts it to an appropriately high level. And this is how it should be in an opera.”
