The second issue of 2015 opens with our “anarchist” cycle by Miroslav Petříček, this time commenting on an excerpt from Peter Marshall’s “Demanding the Impossible”. This is accompanied by two shorter articles developing the theme of the creativity of artificial intelligence – “The Power of a Numb Imagination” by Guy Borde, and “Towards New Horizons (with Computer Imagination)” by Hideous Ládón. The section “Velvet… Harridans” (all q.v.) looks at four productions by the Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade) which was voted Theatre of the Year by critics. Pavlína Pacáková writes on the 2014 Production of the Year – Štědroň’s Velvet Havel (“Find Your Own Havel, For Each and Everyone”), Matěj Král on Camus’s The Outsider directed by Jan Mikulášek (“Theatre, Entirety and Enclosure”) and Vladimír Mikulka on Mikulášek’s productions Pleasure Seekers and Harridans (“If You Like Anything about Death”). The section “What is… (not) Appraised” consists of reviews of the adaptation of Kateřina Tučková’s novel The Expulsion of Gerta Schnirch at the HaDivadlo in Brno (Lollok: “Theatre of Poetic Expression”), Schaffer’s Amadeus at the Divadlo na Vinohradech (Král: “Mischief /in Vinohrady/”) and a series of productions commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Bohumil Hrabal’s birth (Kerbr: “And Another Hrabal and Another”). The section “The Process… of Everyman” is dedicated to dance theatre and includes reviews of the productions The Process by Dora Sulženko Hoštová (Plicková: “How to Be Original”) and John by Lloyd Newsom and DV8 (Brederová: “John, A 21st Century Everyman”). In the section “Circus… Entrepreneurship”, an interview with Jakub Vedral, director of the Art Prometheus Agency (“Cruising, Advertising, Promoting. Round and Round.”), opens a cycle dedicated to theatre producers. It is accompanied by Vladimír Mikulka’s essay “The New Circus without a Big Top” in which he reviews selected productions from the Cirkopolis festival. In the section “Eurodrama…” Petra Dotlačilová writes on the Swedish production Emigrants (“Swedish Emigrants”) by Mats Ek, Barbara Day on the London production of Tena Štivičić’s 3 Winters (“Three Winters, Four Generations”), Michal Zahálka on London productions of Bartlett’s King Charles III and Stoppard’s The Hard Problem (“Games of a Throne and Conscience”), and Dominika Široká on a scandalous Munich production of Brecht’s Baal directed by Frank Castorf (“The Baal Case”). An interview with the playwright René Levínský (“A Playwright is Someone Whose Plays are Staged More than Once”) adumbrates the play of the issue – Jan Žďárský’s Klešice (Home from the Great War). The next Czech “Comedy Mix” introduces the work of Krvik Totr theatre and the eighth instalment of Hynek Dřízhal’s and Petr Vodička’s “Morcec & Hádry” comic strip is entitled “A Spicy Taste of Jealousy”.
Velvet... Harridans In the 2014 Theatre Critics’ Awards the Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade) was voted the Theatre of the Year and a good number of awards went to the production Velvet Havel directed there by Jan Frič. It is this production that Pavlína Pacáková writes about in her essay “Find Your Own Havel, For Each and Everybody”. Miloš Orsoň Štědroň creates a fictitious situation of Václav Havel’s (Miloslav König – Best Actor of the Year) meeting with his uncle, the First Republic film producer Miloš Havel (Petr Jeništa). Miloš has decided to shoot a “pic” about his nephew and under this pretence a recap of Havel’s life takes place. However, Štědroň is focused less on reality than on the constituent elements of the “Havel myth” and he does not hesitate to satirize them in passages and songs in the performance. Havel appears here not only as an intellectual, politician and thinker but also as an impractical ladies’ man (the ladies being represented by the character of the Muse). The most agreeable character is the always practical, sceptical and self-sacrificing Olga Havlová (Marie Spurná – Best Actress of the Year). Pacáková praises the detachment from Havel’s legend but she nevertheless assumes that authors are all too ready to satisfy pro-Havel Prague audiences. The most distinct feature of the dramatization of Camus’s The Outsider – by the director Jan Mikulášek and the literary manager Dora Viceníková – is the splitting of the role of Mersault between five actors. According to Matěj Král, this helps to emphasize a principal motive of the production which is to challenge authenticity. In the same way as in a novel where we can only speculate about the genuineness of the hero’s feelings and detachment, pose and social expectations (or role) play a major role, in this production, too, we are constantly uncertain (for instance with the help of additional movie sequences) whether what we see is real or only filmed or performed. Protagonists step outside their roles, the reality of the stage is questioned and there is a game constantly being played with the spectator. This leads – as emphasized again by Matěj Král – to mediation, not only circumlocution, of the basic idea and atmosphere of the novel. In his essay “If You Like Anything about Death” Vladimír Mikulka writes about the Mikulášek–Viceníková tandem’s production of their own work Pleasure Seekers and about the production Harridans compiled by Dora Viceníková from short works by Daniil Kharms and directed by Anna Petrželková. The two are linked by the theme of death. In Pleasure Seekers death is seen as a subject that is both nasty and amusing at the same time. The production builds on a series of pictures and shorter scenes while its framework is a society party where “something ugly” happens to all participants. Black humour and farce prevail but more serious tones also emerge. According to Mikulka, the production is perfectly professionally controlled in all its aspects, although overall it may sometimes have an autotelic impact. Farce and black humour are also quintessential for Harridans where both are already given in the literary original. Petrželková allows Kharms’s texts to be opened by a quartet of actresses and Viceníková then adds their counterparts in the characters of two hairdressers who are both partners of the “harridans” and victims of their passion. For Mikulka the production benefits from remaining (darkly) playful and the cruel reality of Kharms’s times remains both anticipated and present. Both productions have formal references to the earlier productions Madness and Bourgeoisie and create a thematic trilogy with The Outsider.
Cruising, Advertising, Promoting. Round and Round. A founder and director of the ART Prometheus Agency, Jakub Vedral has long been one of the foremost Czech promoters of street theatre and new circus. In this interview he describes how he attained his current job (also mentioning his part in the successful student production Zojka’s Apartment) and the way his present agency works. ART Prometheus represents some remarkable Czech alternative ensembles (for instance Continuo or Teatr Novogo Fronta) and has also organized open air programmes for international events such as EXPO 2010 or Formula One. Organizing street festivals, specifically Prague’s Za dveřmi (Behind Doors) or Živá ulice (Lively Street) in Pilsen, is another of the prominent activities of ART Prometheus. Vedral explains in detail how the background of such events works and the nature of the complications performers are exposed to. The interview is part of a cycle in which SAD – following last year’s interviews with literary managers – is going to focus on producers and organizers of cultural events, which is the next category of distinguished and essential personalities of Czech theatre who may at first sight seem rather overlooked.