SAD 3/2013

Summary 3/2013

In the next instalment of the series “Sceptics and Subverts” entitled “The Sick House of Fools, Called the World” Miroslav Petříček introduces the works of François de La Mothe Le Vayer. The section “Rider Nebeský” is dedicated to recent productions by the director Jan Nebeský: Jana Bohutínská writes about On a Daily Basis and A Too Silent Nose, Marie Zdeňková about Little Eyolf, and Vladimír Mikulka about Theatre Gočár and Cabaret Shakespeare (all q.v.). The section “Pop Politics” is about new politically engaged drama in Czech: Martin J. Švejda writes on The Mafia Opera (“Touring Ensemble from the Akropolis Palace”), Jakub Škorpil on the production Demo Democracy (“Babble Room”), Vladimír Mikulka on the “scenic magazine” Rozrazil 5/2013 (“Pictures from a Burned Down Land”), and Ester Žantovská on ČEZko Forever (“When This Country is Governed by ČEZ…”). In the section “Brno Depressions” Vladimír Mikulka reviews Golden Sixties (“Something Similar to Nails Nibbling”) by the director Jan Mikulášek, and Marek Lollok Pictures from the Life of Insects (“The Milling of Insects in the Goose on a String Theatre”) directed by Vladimír Morávek. The section “Slovakia to the Core” begins with Milo Juráni’s review of the production Unsure Manor directed by Blaho Uhlár (“From Remarkable Aggression…”), Jana Wild dedicates her essay to Vladimír Klimáček’s Holocaust (“A rose is not a rose is not a rose”), Martina Mašlárová writes on a “scandalous” Respectable Wedding at the Slovak National Theatre (“Such a Successful Wedding”), and Tomáš Procházka reviews the production Trial by Trial by the SkRAT theatre (“We are All Josef K.”). The next two sections deal with foreign theatre: Veronika Štefanová writes about a new circus production La Verità by the ensemble Compagnia Finzi Pasca, and Dana Silbiger-Sliuková about A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged by Bristol’s Old Vic and the Handspring Puppet Company. The section “A Maze with Dramas” starts with an interview with Steve Pencil (“The Petřín Hill and Post-Conceptualism”) and continues with reviews of two productions by Petr Kolečko (Kerbr: “Around and around”), and Jakub Škorpil’s essay on the Alfred Radok Awards and the contest for the Best Original Czech and Slovak Play (“Variations on a Purgatory” – q.v.). The section “…and Grave with Tenderness” leads into the plays of this issue. Retreat in Slovan by the winner of the Radok contest S.d.Ch. is accompanied by Karel Král’s essay “Akaša (S.d.Ch. and Literary Art of Disinterment)” and the interview “Up to the Waist in the Grave”. The Shit by the Italian playwright Cristian Ceresoli is preceded by the interview “Masks and Totalitarianism”. The traditional Comedy Mix offers a sequel to the selection from Michał Walczak’s Polish Cabaret Inferno in a Brothel and the next instalment of Lucie Lomová’s comic strip Shooting Star is titled “On Hunting!”.

Rider Nebeský Jan Nebeský has been one of the most interesting Czech directors for more than twenty five years. He still stands out with his exceptional stage imagery and his sense for an absurd short cuts and a metaphor, often built seemingly “outside the text”. He also often designs the sets and with his permanent collaborator, the costume designer Jana Preková, achieves productions that have a notably stylized character. The collection of essays in this issue present the whole range of aspects of his productions. In her essay “With a Thick Pencil and Gaudy Colours” Marie Zdeňková writes about the production Little Eyolf at the Divadlo v Dlouhé (The Theatre at Dlouhá Street). Ibsen is Nebeský’s favourite author and although the director approaches the playwright’s texts in a traditionally penetrative way, his approach is also rather submissive. Unlike others he does not take author’s texts just as templates for his own productions to be manipulated further but rather than simply bringing them up to date, he tries to grasp key moments and themes of the work through artistic symbols and stylized (grotesque and expressive) acting, to give a new and vivid portrayal. While Nebeský actually subordinates himself to his favourite classical authors (without refuting himself) he appears in a completely different light in productions of his own works or those of the texts written directly for him (Egon Tobiáš is one such author). Here he becomes the sovereign master with unbridled imagination. As is often the way, the results are mixed: sometimes the productions are outstanding with a chain of peculiar ideas and a specific mood and style while at other times they seem inaccessibly closed and impenetrable, as though they were meant only for a limited circle of fans or perhaps only the authors themselves. This is also the case of productions at the Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade) Daily (Ponies of Weakness), a cryptic parody of screen whodunits, and A Too Silent Nose, a site-specific project on the borders between theatre and artistic visual performance arranged as part of the Prague Quadrennial in a run-down house on Nekázanka Street. Jana Bohutínská writes about these productions in her essay “A Crack in the Landscape of Safety”. Vladimír Mikulka writes in his double-review “From Architecture to Sonnets” on those of Nebeský’s productions in which music plays an important part. It is partly about Theatre Gočár at the Divadlo Komedie, a quirky portrait of three pre-war architects (the trio of Gočár, Plečnik and Janák is complemented by an allegorical character of the Republic, called simply ČSR) in which Nebeský collaborated with the composer and librettist Miloš Orsoň Štědroň. Theatre Gočár is a follow-up of their previous cooperation on the production Cabaret Ivan Blatný six years ago. Mikulka writes that the production is quite hilarious and Štědroň’s “crafty” lyrics and compositions go well together with Nebeský’s no less playful and disjointed direction. Jazzman Emil Viklický wrote the music for the Cabaret Shakespeare based on the Sonnets and performed at the alternative space of the Roxy/NoD. However the result is not so convincing, perhaps because this is the kind of production in which Nebeský and his collaborators are first and foremost enjoying themselves.

Alfréd Radok Awards for the Best Original Czech and Slovak Play This anonymous contest is held annually by the Alfréd Radok Foundation. Fifty-nine texts took part this year and six members of the jury chose nine finalists. A jury member, Jakub Škorpil, comments on the selected plays in his essay “Variations on Purgatory”. He misses originality and distinctiveness in both theme and form. The award went to S.d.Ch. and his play Retreat in Slovan, a Bernhardian monologue that “rebukes” (not only) contemporary Czech theatre. (The script and an interview with the playwright – who also had another play Apocalypse in Prague in the final – are published in this issue.) The jury was captivated not only by the subject but also by the original, stylized language and style. The second place went to Psoriasis by the Slovak playwright Vladimír Mores, professionally and outstandingly well-handed “exercises in style” with elements of both dada and the absurd. The third place went to Tomáš Vůjtek with his play Hearing, which is a stylistic follow up to his successful drama With Hope and Without It introducing the life story of Josefa Slánská, the wife of a prominent communist Rudolf Slánský, executed by his comrades after a political trial. This time Vůjtek has developed “the life and works” of Adolf Eichmann in the form of a kind of confession. However, according to Jakub Škorpil it is only a repetition of a well-known model, and Vůjtek thus actually stole from himself. This year's special award from Czech Radio 3 Vltava went to Petr Michálek for his text The Little House.