SAD 2/2011

Summary 2/2011

The issue opens with the second instalment of the annotated translation of a selected chapter from Giorgio Agamben’s essay Homo sacer, this time titled by Miroslav Petříček as “The Country Man in front of Law”. In the following section “Imported… Even a Subtle Hand” Josef Rubeš writes in his essay “Routine. The Dream” about two productions of Chekhov’s Seagull (at the Činoherní studio and Středočeské divadlo) and about Klimáček’s variation I am Kraftwerk! at the HaDivadlo. Marek Lollok (“Tomcat, Maestro and Two Margaritas”) reviews Morávek’s production of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Karel Král writes on Marber’s Dealer’s Choice at the Dejvické divadlo (“Deal Out and Rule”) and Vladimír Mikulka on McDonagh’s Behanding in Spokane at Prague’s Činoherní klub. The next two sections – “The Myth… With History” and “Legends… About Celebrities” develop this year’s theme of (not only) modern myths and legends. In the first section Tereza Dostálová writes on the production Music in Bohemia. Bohemians in Music from the Polárka of Brno (“Strange Pictures from Czech History”), Marie Kvapilová on The Blue Flowers, an adaptation of Raymond Queneau’s novel at the Slovácké divadlo Uherské Hradiště (“European History or Nightmares”) and Lenka Dombrovská on Stroupežnický’s Our Young Bucks interpreted by the Divadlo v Dlouhé (“Who Should Be the Night Watcher in the Village”). The latter section is introduced by a “research proposal” by Václav A. Svoboda “The Legend as a Medium of Communication” and continues with Eliška Aquirra’s essays on a two-part production of Dorst’s Merlin at the Švandovo divadlo (“Whitherwards with Merlin”), Jan Kerbr’s essay on productions T.G.M. or Masaryk between the Past and Present by the Studio Ypsilon and Men of the World, directed by Vladimír Morávek at the Klicperovo divadlo in Hradec Králové (“Hey, Hey, Hey, With Us Please Play”) and Radka Kunderová’s on The Vow at the National Theatre of Brno (“The Vow to the Kitsch”). The first foreign section is “In the U.S.A. Jews… In the U.S.A. Women” where the translated review “Al Pacino As Shylock” by Stephen Greenblatt is accompanied by Pavel Trenský’s study “The Merchant of Venice – A Concise History of Productions” and a review of American opera productions of The Makropulos Affair and Anna Karenina (Rudo Leška: “The Karenina Affair”). The section “England… For Visuals” brings a review of Crimp’s Country at the Arcola Theatre in London (Jitka Šotkovská: “Et in Arcadia ego?”); Jan Šotkovský writes on Twelfth Night directed by Richard Eyre and on Hamlet produced by Nicholas Hytner at the Royal National Theatre (“…And Playing Day by Day”), and Vladimír Mikulka returns to the Mimefest London 2010 (“Going To London to Visit Visuals”) “Hungary… into the Showcase” includes an essay about the five latest productions by the Maladype theatre (Rita Sebestyén: “Theatre Intervention”), a review of Horváth’s Kazimir and Karolina, László Bagossy’s praised production (Andreia Rádai: “Details of Small People”), and Jakub Škorpil’s essay on the “Hungarian Showcase 2010” (“From the Outside”). In the section “Małgorzata S&M… And Fogs“ there is an interview with a Polish playwright Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk (“Till My Son Sleeps Up”) and a study on her productions by Paweł Sztarbowski (“In the Fogs of Absurd”). The essay by Sikorska-Miszczuk herself entitled “The Cabaret on the End of World” introduces selected sketches from the Polish Cabaret on the End of World in the Czech translation by Jiří Vondráček. Comedy Mix continues presentations of “stand-up comedy pioneers” of old Prague, and this time it offers Véna from Prague – Philosopher by František Leopold Šmíd, another instalment in the comic strip by Hana Voříšková entitled Mine, and there is of course also the traditional “Kaleidoscope of the Brief News from the Theatre World”.

Deal Out and Rule (Addicts at Dejvice)  Karel Král deals in this essay with the production of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice, directed by Jiří Pokorný at the Dejvické divadlo in Prague. The author started with his own gambling experience, and thus he deals with poker – which is the game the heroes of the play fell for – quite naturally. A gambling nature is embraced thoroughly at the Dejvické divadlo, too. And it is good. It corresponds to the ensemble’s acting style. It is outstanding not only for their aptitude and teamwork but also for the unembarrassed serenity by local actors when turning into their characters. This could be said to be a serenity of British provenance: an actor does not overact but underact, a crack is delivered in a dry manner, straight-faced or in other words – with a poker face. Style and game thus go together. Six characters – all men – represent various and wholly human gamblers so that it is impossible to characterise any of them unambiguously: a tough man is a weakling as well, a clever fellow is a blockhead, affectionately loving father becomes a usurper… etc. Directorship and actors underline ambivalence, unrestricted by any clear interpretation. One spectator can see a play about relationships between parents and children, another about cheating, one woman says it is about male misogyny and another even thinks the main theme is homosexuality. A complex relationship of one father to his son, few trickeries, the fact that there is no woman or husband in the drama, although three men are divorced and only one of them is said to be having sex with women – it is enough. But nothing is really sure here. Nor is it sure that the last mentioned man has a relationship with his male colleague from a job and the roommate. However, relationships – frequently really affectionate though that does not necessary mean that sexual – between those men are really the central concern. The capacity for kindness balances the devastating force of gambling passion. An optimism springing from this affection is also – together with skills of actors, Čermák, Myšička, Neužil, Novotný, Plesl and Trojan – a source of the spectator’s pleasure.

The Cabaret On the End of World The cabaret of this name was devised by the playwright Michał Walczak. He came up with this idea in autumn 2010 and succeeded in gathering many artists who shared both generational and mental outlook. The first two performances took place last year at the Laboratory of Drama in Warsaw (run by another playwright – Tadeusz Słobodzianek) and they were made up of new material. Then the artists chose the best pieces and “under the directorial supervision” of Piotr Jędrzejas they now introduce them in a more regular scenic form. Sketches published in this issue were selected by the translator Jiří Vondráček together with Michał Walczak who is also the author of the closing monologue The Actress, outstanding in its abstractness. The selection starts with Gender Kabareto by Anna Wakulik, offering a spoof version of a Poland where eggheadedness, style and racial and sexual tolerance are the common standard. Two dialogues by Jarosław Murawski follow: The Ideal Couple: How to Persuade Her to Have a Baby and The Ideal Couple: An Ugly Child, linking together traditional comedy themes and hints to the present and a parody of highbrowism. Down’s Syndrome by Artur Pałyga is a lecture ironically proving how everything in Polish society is related to the growing numbers of individuals with Down’s Syndrome. In her Lesson of Right Upbringing Maria Wojtyszko advises women teachers how to treat children at school, and Therapy by Lukasz Bluszcz is a paradoxical psychoanalytic dialogue between Father and Son. Two grotesque manifestations of alcoholism in cases of both men and women are described in the Campaign against Alcoholism by Emilie Kaczmarek.