The issue opens with Miroslav Petříček’s article „Rerun of Anarchism in the Spirit of Emmanuel Levinas”, accompanied by an excerpt from Simon Critchley’s essay „Infinitely Demanding”. The section „Anarchy and Genes” follows with an excerpt from a letter sent to the editor by Jan Panenka („Genetics: Art and Sharks”), and a translation of Michael Richter’s essay „Presence as Experimental Archaeology”. The section „Exploration… Stage Design” considers this year’s Prague Quadrennial: Věra Velemanová’s essay „«She is not Dead but Asleep» (Children for Children. Fragments from PQ15)” is supplemented by interviews with Daniela Pařízková, executive director of PQ 2011 and 2015 („A Job for a Marathoner”), Stefan Kaegi („Between Art and Exploration”) and Julie Taymor („Simply Heading towards the Essential”). This section also includes Josef Rubeš’s essay „Shakespearean Movies by Julie Taymor”. Major, summarizing articles constitute „Hope in Brno or Hradec” section where Jitka Šotkovská writes about the National Theatre Brno („A Season of too Great Expectations”) and Vladimír Mikulka about the Klicperovo divadlo of Hradec Králové („Talking of the Devil at a Successful Theatre”). In the section „Without Fear… Illusions” Karolina Plicková writes in her essay „To Dance without Fear” about productions of Histoire de l’imposture (Cie Mossoux Bonté) and Last Work (Ohad Naharin and Batscheva Dance Comp.), Rudo Leška („/In/ Search of The National Theatre Opera”) reviews productions of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead (directed by Daniel Špinar) and Verdi’s Macbeth (directed by Martin Čičvák), and Michaela Mojžišová writes in her essay „Sex, Terrorism and Illusions” about three operatic productions from Festival d’Aix-en-Provence: Händel’s Alcina directed by Katie Mitchell, Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio directed by Martin Kušej, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Robert Carsen. In the section „Philosophers… with Immersion” Alice Koubová’s essay „Observe! Imitate? Be Yourself!” looks at the possibilities for using theatrical principles in philosophical research and Lukáš Brychta („Waiting for Judgement and Other Dystopias”) writes about two immersive theatre projects: The Waiting Room by the SIGNA association and The House//Number/Zero by Mona el Gammal and Juri Padel. Jakub Škorpil’s essay „Then in ’45… (Winners of the Drama Contest 2015)” introduces the play of this issue, which is the contest winner – Money by Dodo Gombár. This issue’s „Comedy Mix” introduces comedian Lukáš Pavlásek and the eleventh instalment of „Morcec and Hádry” comic strip is entitled „An All-Star Line-up”.
Prague Quadrennial (PQ) 2015 The section entitled „Exploration… Stage Design” is dedicated to the world’s biggest exhibition of stage design. Věra Velemanová in her essay „«She is not Dead but Asleep» (Children for Children. Fragments from PQ15)” considers the concept of an exhibition which moves away from a traditional set design towards an installation, performance or playroom for children. For example, this was the case of tree trunks with sound systems (Poland), music of melting ice drops (Finland) or the opportunity for visitors to play a corpse being consumed by worms (Spain). The works by students of the Prague Academy as well as some exhibited classical stage designs (for instance from China or the Swedish student section) are proofs of „sleeping“ stage design. The executive director of the exhibition Daniela Pařízková looks at PQ from a different angle. In an interview conducted by Karel Král and entitled „A Job for a Marathoner”, she says that stage design has become a subject of research for example in the social sciences. However, the central theme of the interview is the production of such a vast event and the fettering rules imposed particularly by unclear Czech laws. There were also financial obstacles. Though an inquiry has proved that money flowing from this event into the state or municipal treasury double the amount provided in grants, politicians don’t seem to hear that - even though PQ was a highly successful event with more than 100,000 visitors attending in the course of 11 days. There were also a series of discussions and forums held in exhibition settings filling the palaces, galleries and even streets of Prague. The participants included two distinguished theatrical figures. In an interview entitled „Simply Heading towards the Essential” Josef Rubeš questions the American director and set designer Julie Taymor. The interview pursues her approach to set design and new technologies, ranging from The Lion King to her interpretation of Shakespeare. Rubeš’s essay „Shakespearean Movies by Julie Taymor” then looks at her three movies. In an interview „Between Art and Exploration” Karel Král questions Stefan Kaegi, one of the dramaturgic-directorial trio Rimini Protokoll that is launching specific forms of documentary theatre, either with the so-called experts of ordinary days, or non-actors, or „productions” in which spectators themselves change into participants.
Drama Contest 2015 is the successor to 22 years of the anonymous contest for the best original Czech and Slovak drama, until 2014 known as Alfréd Radok Award. Altogether 49 authors or authorial pairs submitted 57 texts (ten of them were Slovak). The main award went to Money by Dodo Gombár, second place to Adam Votruba for his work Aryanization and third place was shared by Magdaléna Mikulová (Il Duetto /Das Duett/) and Anna Sobotková (Ich, Adolf). A special Czech Radio Award went to Ervin Hodulik for his play The Two. Jakub Škorpil observes in his essay „Then in ’45…” primarily the fact that the second and third placed works return to the times of WWII and are dominated by exaggeration and caricature. This is particularly the case of Aryanization, an anecdote about the aryanization of Brno’s Jewish cemetery, and Ich, Adolf built on the idea of the „master of the world in a dressing gown” and particularly focusing on Hitler’s difficulties with the marriage-minded Eva Braun. Il Duetto is a more serious – but unfortunately strongly over-elaborated – „spy” story from occupied Prague. The author of the essay believes that playwrights should be more courageous and take risks both thematically and formally. Those are, he adds, „merits that adorn the triumphant Gombár’s Money.” Gombár’s play takes place in a contemporary Slovak small town. For most of the time we follow several parallel developing lines (some of them even in retrospect). There is a young couple – Peter and Milena – shortly before their wedding, a former barber Láska who currently earns his living by harmonica busking, Dano and his mother, and also a pair of local „gangsters” preparing to rob a bank. It is the bank around which everything revolves: it stands on the site of Láska’s former barber shop (he usually busks in a passage in front of it), Dano works there as a security guard and Peter wants to withdraw money for the wedding. There is nothing strange about the fact that all the characters come together during the robbery, which is the moment depicted by Gombár with the help of intertwining lines where it is not always clear who is speaking. The play is marked by its natural, unaffected and structurally accurate dialogues and the refined, technically well-handled form.