Summary 1/2014
The first issue of this twenty fifth volume as usual brings the full summary and results of the annual critical survey which forms the basis for the Alfréd Radok Awards. Miroslav Petříček’s essay “An Investigation into Whodunit Matters” is accompanied by a translation of the first excerpt from the works of Luc Boltanski “Mysteries and Conspiracies”, which launches a new cycle titled “Investigations and Conspiracies”. The section “Seagulls and Other Birdies” is dedicated to selected Czech productions and Marie Reslová opens it with an analysis of Chekhov’s Seagull, directed at the Dejvické divadlo by Michal Vajdička (“The Seagull in the Dejvice Picture Gallery”). Vladimír Mikulka and Jakub Škorpil review Jiří Havelka’s production The Last Trick of Georges Méliès staged at the Drak Theatre of Hradec Králové (“The Art of Letting Oneself Be Enchanted”) and a documentary production The Brass Band, prepared by the theatre Vosto5 and their guests (“Pictures from the History of Dobrodín Village”). The section closes with Jan Kerbr’s review of the Divadlo Na zábradlí production The Grey Seventies written by Dora Viceníková and Jan Mikulášek (“Waiting in the Quiet of Timelessness”). The section “Spitfire Deviation with Crisis” consists of Vladimír Mikulka’s essay on the Spitfire Company productions Shrimps à la Indigo and Antiwords (“Between Theatre and Themselves”) and an essay by Calvin Cohn titled “Cosmic Imagination”. The opera section “Italy Lives Everywhere” brings an interview with the director David Poutney (“You Cannot Live off the Past if You Do Not Immerse Yourself in it”), a review of his Prague production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (Rudo Leška: “Cheaply, Quickly, World-Class”) and Michaela Mojžišová’s essay “Italian Classics in Italy” looks at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Bergamo Musica Festival. In the section “Drama on British Soil”, Dana Silbiger-Sliuková’s essay “Terrorists, Mafiosi and Anarchists” is about three new dramas staged at the Traverse Theatre: Greig’s Events, Harrower’s Ciara and The Secret Agent by theatre O and Matthew Hurt. Radka Kunderová (“Othello in Times of Political Correctness”) looks at Hytner’s production of Othello at the Royal National Theatre in London with Adrian Lester in the title role. Michal Zahálka writes on productions at the Israeli showcase International Theatre Exposure & Isra-Drama 2013 in the section “Israel Has a Theme” (“Theatre in an Unsettled Country”) and in the closing section “And Holland Minsk” Petra Prins’ essay “We Will Set the Men from Minsk on You!” introduces the production of Men from Minsk by the De Oorkaan Foundation and the Mitangi Quartet. The play of this issue which was commissioned by this magazine and written by the last year’s laureate of the Alfréd Radok Awards, S.d.Ch, is titled The Universal Washroom (a Play with Prizes). The issue closes with a Comedy Mix, which this year will be all Italian and opens with the comic and politician Beppe Grillo, a reader’s letter responding to the so-called Authors Night presentation of stage readings by the finalists of the Drama Contest in the Alfréd Radok Awards, the traditional “Kaleidoscope of Brief News from around the World” and The Contents of World and Theatre Magazine (SAD) 2013. Finally, an episode entitled “Galactic Worm” begins a new comic strip “Morcec and Hádry” by Petr Vodička and Hynek Dřízhal.
The Alfréd Radok Awards A total of 78 critics took part in this year’s annual survey organized by World and Theatre Magazine (SAD). The Production of the Year 2013 went to The Golden Sixties or The Diary of Pavel J. Based on the film-maker Pavel Juráček’s diaries, it was developed by Dora Viceníková and Jan Mikulášek who also directed it. Originally it opened at the National Theatre Brno – Reduta Theatre, and it is currently also at the Divadlo Na zábradlí which the team from Reduta – including Viceníková, Mikulášek and Petr Štědroň – took over during the last year. The critics gave the Best Actress award to Tereza Vilišová for the role of Amy in Špinar’s production of My Romantic History by D. C. Jackson performed at the Divadlo Petra Bezruče in Ostrava. The Actor of the Year award went to Karel Dobrý for the character of oprichnik Andrei Danilovich in the adaptation of Vladimir Sorokin’s novel Day of the Oprichnik. It was staged for the Studio Hrdinů theatre by the director Kamila Polívková. The Best Theatre of the Year award went to the Komorní scéna Aréna of Ostrava and the Best Newly Staged Czech Play of the Year is Milan Šotek’s Finback Whale, written for “his” generation theatre Cabaret Calembour. The award for the Best Set Design went to Martin Chocholoušek and his sets for Drábek’s adaptation of Šamberk’s The Eleventh Commandment, staged at Prague’s National Theatre. The Best Music of the Year was composed by jazz musician Emil Viklický for Jan Nebeský’s production Cabaret Shakespeare. The actor Patrik Děrgel was declared Talent of the Year and the voters particularly commended his performance in the title role of Špinar’s production of Hamlet at the Švandovo divadlo in Prague. As usual, critics also voted for their Best Experience of a Foreign Theatre, with the most votes going to Stephan Kimmig’s production of Oedipus City performed by the Berlin Deutches Theater at last year’s Prague Festival of German Language Theatre.
Between Theatre and Themselves (The Spitfire Company Performs about Beer and Shrimps) Two Spitfire Company productions introduce the directors, Petr Boháč and Miřenka Čechová, and the style range in which this theatre operates. Boháč’s Antiwords offers buffoonery loosely inspired by Havel’s Audience. Both the character of Havel’s alter ego, Ferdinand Vaněk, and Sládek wheedling his troublesome employee to inform against himself are played by two young women with large masks covering their heads. In accordance with its title, Antiwords is stripped of the original text and many of the nuances the author included in his famous playlet have vanished. However, it includes direct references to the legendary period of its recording, performed alongside Pavel Landovský (whose words are heard over loudspeakers during the performance) by the author himself. The way the production raises the subject of the attitude of contemporary generation to the times in which this absurdly peculiar encounter took place is equally important to the uneven duel of the two protagonists. Shrimps à la Indigo is a work by the director Čechová (Boháč wrote the script) and it showcases the dance-inspired, ironically erotic and feministic setting of the Spitfire Company. It was loosely inspired by four female surrealist artists from between the wars and the cardinal theme is the rebellion of oppressed women against the domination of a masculine society. However, the principal power of the production lies in its ability to create captivating dance and artistic images accompanied by a lively tango performed by the French duo Cécile Da Costa and Mathieu Gautron.