The issue opens with the next annotated extract from philosophical works on the theme of time. An excerpt from Gaston Bachelard’s “The Dialectic of Duration” is introduced by Miroslav Petříček’s short essay entitled “A Tremor of Time”. The following two contributions deal with a unique theatrical-physical experiment in the Bulgarian Oreshak (David Galiatsatos: “The Experiment Oreshak” and Danny John-Jules: “Oreshak and the Implicated Order”). The section closes with Petr Vydra’s short story “Soliloquy”. The section “The Body… of Experimental Theatre” starts with Karolina Plicková’s review of the productions Whistleblowers, Disconnected and Together Forever! by the Farm in the Cave ensemble (“The Body as a Political Issue”). Twelve authors of experimental theatre working in Czechia took part in a detailed survey “Experimental Theatre Today” (q. v.), which is accompanied by an interview with the founder of The Centre for Experimental Theatre, Petr Oslzlý (“CED?”), and a review of the latest production by the Spitfire Company, Fragments of Love Images (Kateřina Veselovská: “Enter after Applause”). The section “Mickey Mouse… and Other Fairy Tales” brings reviews of selected Czech productions: Kateřina Kykalová writes in her essay “Dianiška does not Deal with «Big Truths»” about productions of texts by the playwright and actor Tomáš Dianiška (voted by critics as the Talent of the Year 2016) Mickey Mouse is Dead, 1,000 Things…, How to Pick Up a Woman 2.0, Perverse Margaret, My Little Deviation and The Atomic Pussycat. Otto Kaupinnen reviews an adaptation of Fassbinder’s movie Fear Eats the Soul in the National Theatre Brno (“Stylisation Eats the Soul”) and Karel Král (“Beneficium through the Funeral and Psychodramatic Compote”) considers the productions Frailty, Thy Name is Woman (directed by Daniel Špinar, National Theatre Prague) and AnderSen (directed by Jan Mikulášek, at the Divadlo na Zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade)) which are connected by the use of performers’ memories. In the section “Opera… Wild” Ivan Žáček writes under the title “A Pyromaniac Spring at the National Theatre” about productions of the operas No Man by Jiří Kadeřábek (directed by Katharina Schmitt, conducted by Jiří Kadeřábek) and Krakatit (directed by Alice Nellis, conducted by Petr Kofroň) at the National Theatre Prague. The section “Mercedes… aus” is dedicated to Slovak theatre. Lucija Lejková presents a production by the writing and performing theatre group SkRAT, Project Onegin (“An Unconventional Dream about Onegin”), and Martina Ulmanová reviews the production of Péter Esterházy’s play Mercedes Benz, which was written by the recently deceased Hungarian author for the Slovak National Theatre (“We are Nothing without the Past”), as well as the presentation of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s works Idomeneus (directed by Eduard Kudláč, The Municipal Theatre Žilina) and An und Aus (directed by Burkhard Kosminski, Nationaltheater Mannheim), the latter two in her essay “Bouillon and Soufflé”. In the “Berlin” section Markéta Polochová writes in her essay “Eine Runde Um Die Welt” about Wilson’s production of Beckett’s End of Game (Berliner Ensemble), Phantoms (Gespenster) compiled for the Deutsches Theater by Sebastian Hartmann based on texts by Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and Heinrich Heine, Weiss’s Marat/Sade directed by Stefan Pucher (Deutsches Theater) and Marthaler’s production of Familiar Feelings, Mixed Faces (Bekannte Gefühle, gemischte Gesichter) from the Volksbühne. In her essay “Theatre Spaces and (inter)Worlds” Barbora Schnelle then reviews the productions Borderline Procession (Die Borderline Prozession) (directed by Kay Voges, Schauspiel Dortmund), 89/90 (directed by Claudia Bauer, Schauspiel Leipzig), Mournful Magician (Traurige Zauberer) (directed by Thom Luz, Staatstheater Mainz), MDLSX (directed by Enrico Lacascade and Daniela Nicoló, MOTUS) and Denial (directed by Yael Ronen, Gorki Berlin). The play of the issue is Tristesses by Anne-Cécile Vandalem, the next playlet by Hubert Krejčí is entitled Upheaval in Přelouč and the tenth instalment of the comic strip “Theatre Sadism Lessons” by S.d.Ch. is entitled Segoe UI Semibold.
Experimental Theatre Today
Twelve authors whose productions can be classified as experimental theatre answer questions in the SaD magazine survey. The wide-ranging material maps out their sometimes conflicting opinions on what experimental theatre really is, where the need to make theatre differently springs from, whether and how it exerts an effort to bring about change through theatre, in what measure experimental theatre is also political, whether it should be scandalous, etc. An overview of the participants is supplemented by short excerpts from their statements: Jiří Adámek (Boca Loca Lab): “It seems important to me that a spectator should experience something that doesn’t correspond to his or her rooted projections, and so puts him or her on the alert.” Petr Boháč (Spitfire Company): “The only thing I can change through theatre without punishment is me.” Lukáš Brychta (Pomezí (The Borderline) Project): “I am impressed by those authors who do not rack their brains for an answer as to what medium they are in and if the thing they are doing is still theatre…” Viliam Dočolomanský (The Farm in the Cave): “You just feel more and more that you are on the threshold of a mystery and that you are attracted by it and do not understand it…” Michal Hába (Lachende Bestien and others): “Theatre is usually quite «fascistic» and democracy does not suit it well.” Jiří Havelka (the chief of the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre DAMU, Vosto5 and others): “I believe that the issue today is to pull a spectator out of their cushy comfort zone of a passive recipient of entertaining and aesthetical catchiness.” Jan Kačena (Kartel): “In a way, I cannot take the word experiment seriously, it makes me laugh.” Anežka Kalivodová (Disk Theatre): “For me an experiment might be a way to make theatre in an unusual, rather impractical way: to avoid clear narration, to arouse the spectator’s fantasy by its imagination.” Vladimír Morávek (Husa na provázku (Goose on a String) Theatre): “Preposterousness and hilariousness are life circumstances in theatre – yes – so. In Czechia, awkwardness is sometimes added.” Tomáš Procházka (Handa Gote Research & Development): “We were also inspired by technology and crafts, however, not the theatrical versions but the real ones – welding, stonecutting, woodwork, metal casting, the making of ceramics – these are activities in which we can always find a performative aspect and expectations but never affectation.” Lucie Repašská (D’epog): “What is animated is fun! And the reverse, if it is not fun, it is not animated!” Petra Tejnorová (Seržant Tejnorová & the Commando): “I create non-lasting structures as a space for discussion.”