SAD 4/2011

Summary 4/2011

The issue opens with another instalment of the annotated translation of Giorgio Agamben’s works, this time titled by Miroslav Petříček “Words and Things (Giorgio Agamben: The Idea of Prose”. In the following section “Delusions of Myths and Buran” Jan Kerbr writes on Burešová’s production of Claudel’s Break of Noon at the Divadlo v Dlouhé (“Delusions of Depth and Distance”), Ervin Hodulik (“Myths Great as the City of Brno”) explores productions of The Star of the Silver Screen (directed by J. Pokorný, Reduta), Gagarin (directed by J. Sedal, HaDivadlo) and Antonín Huvar (directed by Zetel, Buranteatr Brno), and Radka Kunderová (“Born to Be Wild!”) writes on a modern interpretation of The Misanthrope and Hedda Gabler at the Buranteatr of Brno. The section “Mad with the Seeker” presents portraits of the director Jan Frič (Veselovská: “The Most Beautiful is often Mad”) and Petra Tejnorová (Rubeš: “Tejnorová the Seeker”). Marie Zdeňková writes about the graphic artist and set designer Michal Pěchouček (“The Frontier Guard of Artistic Categories”) in the section “The Frontier Guard”. The section “Bam and Bush from Czech Meadows” is dedicated to the playwright and director Miroslav Bambušek and to the production of his play The Czech War. The play staged at the Divadlo Na zábradlí by David Czesany is reviewed by Lenka Dombrovská (“On Anti-communist Resistance in a Radical Way”) and annotated by Jiří Stránský (“A Czech War? The Czech Party!”), and its author is portrayed by Vojtěch Varyš in essay “The Bad Guy from Louny Town (Miroslav Bambušek between Macho and Amateur)”. The “Political Theatre” section consists of an essay by Ester Žantovská “Right-wingers, Left-wingers, Masochists and Roma” about productions of Confession of a Masochist by Roman Sikora, Blonde Beastie directed by Tomáš Svoboda, Sorokin’s Marina’s Thirtieth Love in a dramatisation by Karel Steigerwald and Jiří Honzírek’s production at the Feste Theatre She Has Grazed Horses on the Balcony. The section is completed by a review of the “Arabian” Sophocles’ Antigone, directed by Tom Littler at London’s Southwark Playhouse. The section “A Postcard from Vienna” returns to productions at this year’s Wienerfestwochen: Marek Lollok writes on The Dark Side of the Moon (“The Cosmic Walk of Robert Lepage”), Svetozár Sprušanský on Latvian Loves (“Hermanis’ Partnership Chemistry”), Michaela Mojžišová on Wüstenbuch (“Marthaler’s Wandering through Furrer’s Desert”) and Rigoletto (“Bondy’s Featureless Jester”), Jana Bžochová-Wild on Wastwater (“The Dark Tones of Katie Mitchell”) and Desdemona (“Sellars and Morrison: The Concealed Past…”), and Martina Ulmanová on ±0 Sub-polar Base Camp (“Marthaler’s Scenic Vibrations”). The section “Suicides and Waiting” foreshadows the play of the issue, which is Problem by the Slovak playwright Zuza Ferenczová and also contains Viktor Janota’s essay “Literary Suicides”, a critical glance back at the New Drama 2011 Festival (Škorpil: “Waiting for a New Drama”) and an interview with Zuza Ferenczová entitled “From Jablonová”. The comic strip by Hana Voříšková is this time entitled He-e-e-e-elp!, the Comedy Mix has two excerpts from the show Beyond the Fringe and the traditional Kaleidoscope is also here.

Mad with the Seeker In her essay “The Most Beautiful is often Mad (Jan Frič in the 2010/2011 Season)” Kateřina Veselovská describes five productions by this recent graduate of theatre direction at DAMU, from the clubbish cycle of cabarets for the disco-generation of the 1990s House of Love I–III through the Hašek Cabaret (together with Miloš Orson Štědroň; both productions were staged at A Studio Rubín) and a version of the classical Orestes at the Divadlo Na zábradlí to more traditional productions like Kokkola at the F. X. Šalda Theatre and The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Klicperovo divadlo Hradec Králové. For Veselovská, Frič’s style is based not only on “eye-catching effects but also on distinctive humour, hyperbole, original associations, a surprising playing with comic situations and bizarre details”. He is at his best when he can bend the text of a play to his will and cultivate “mad variations” leading to a form that lies “between cabaret and drama, between collage and performance of a tunefully set artwork”. Although Veselovská acknowledges Frič’s striving after a deeper meaning and subject of his productions, she is concerned that the impressiveness of the productions overpowers everything. Petra Tejnorová, introduced by Josef Rubeš in his essay “Tejnorová the Seeker”, is another recent DAMU graduate, this time from the Department of the Alternative and Puppet Theatre. Rubeš describes three productions – a study on partnership relations Bluebeard/draebeulB; “a survey” of myth and a story based on classical foundations I AS ON ME DE A; and the dance-musical timINg. The director’s method consists of approaching a production as material through which she examines selected theme from all thinkable angles. In this process she works with fragmenting and “re-mixing” narrative techniques, she infringes the linearity of the narration and offers various variations and permutations. Her productions always lie on the borders between genres and their main characteristic is their openness to new technologies.

The Frontier Guard Although just one of three productions at the multicultural centre MeetFactory, described by Marie Zdeňková’s essay “The Frontier Guard of Artistic Categories”, bears the graphic artist Michal Pěchouček’s name, we cannot talk about “pure” creation of set design in his case. As Zdeňková demonstrates using the example of his exhibition Lessons in Art, he oscillates between graphic and performing arts and is characterised by a feeling for performance in the sense of the creation of potentially theatrical situations. One exception is The Sabre, an adaptation of Dorota Masłowska’s novel Queen’s Sabre (Paw królowej), directed by Jan Horák, in which Pěchouček’s set design (though reserved) defines the final form of the production. His project Men Paint and the performance SY by Jan Nebeský and Jan Horák are formations between theatre productions and artistic installations, offering space for both dramatic and artistic improvisations as well as Pěchouček’s distinctive sense of humour, overstatement and poetry.

Zuza Ferenczová: Problem A teenage girl figures out the problem of her pregnancy together with her friends Kika and Ika and Boy. The dialogue is laconic as a poem and witty as a first-rate sitcom. In spite of the ever-present humour the play is increasingly dominated by the dark theme of suicide, although even this is a source of humour, at least at first. For instance, her companion Kika suggests the best form of suicide is “pills, cutting veins and hot bath, the well-known 3 in 1. This is impressive and painless. Only your frock sticks to your body so all of you can be seen which means going on a diet first.” The Girl, who wants to find out what’s beyond death, coaxes Boy to help her “to kill herself a little bit”. Though the Boy drowns her in a bathtub, he never leaves her under water long enough. Eventually, the Girl’s problem grows up to the height of the house and she jumps from it. Her despair and feeling that there is no good way out of her situation and her decision to die with her unborn child has a powerful effect.