The issue is opened by Miroslav Petříček with his essay “Freedom as Imagination” accompanied this time by excerpts from Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination”. Karel Haloun’s series about “political posters in this country…” continues with a chapter entitled “Sweet Hopes, Bitter Hangover”. The opening section “Freedom… Performative” then closes with Bohuslav Vrbenský’s linked essays “The Importance of Nudges in Social Networks” and Kevin Glendalough’s “To Live Dada (from Prague Performative)”. Blanka Křivánková opens the section “Czechs… to Themselves” with a review (“Furious Rebellions against the Loss of Meaning”) of two adaptations of prose works introduced recently by the Prague National Theatre: The Visit based on Emil Hakl’s short stories (directed by Jan Frič) and Nightwork based on Jáchym Topol’s eponymous novel (directed by Jan Mikulášek). Marek Lollok writes in his essay “A Stringy Annunciation” about the production of Milan Uhde’s play Mary’s Choice at Divadlo Husa na provázku (The Goose on a String Theatre) directed by Juraj Nvota, and Jakub Škorpil (“A Simulation of Reality by Anna Klimešová”) introduces director Anna Klimešová focusing on her productions Barunka is Leaving, Notes from Spare Times, Press Paradox and The Sovereign. The section “Poles… even to us” uses a survey entitled “On Faust!” (q.v.) to consider Jan Klata’s production at Divadlo pod Palmovkou and also offers Jan Jiřík’s review (“You Will Be Relieved”) of Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production We are Leaving at Nowy Teatr in Warsaw. In the “British” section “Old and Sad… Bitter Tales” Jan Šotkovský (“Old, Sad Tales”) writes about London musicals Hamilton, Hadestown, Company and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s School of Rock, and Karolina Plicková (“Brexit vs Honey Crumbs”) about the project Speak Bitterness by Forced Entertainment. Michaela Mojžišová (“Catharsis and a Happy Ending”) writes in the section “From the National Opera… in Paris” about operas: Caino overo Il primo omicidio by Alessandro Scarlatti (directed by Romeo Castelluci, conducted by René Jacobs) and Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka (directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Susanna Mällki). The play of the issue is a screenplay of the TV sitcom Destruction of the Dejvické Theatre written by Miroslav Krobot and Ondřej Hübl, and it is accompanied by an interview with the latter, entitled “Crisis, Pride, AIDS… and Brno”. The “Comedy Mix” section introduces a German comedian of Turkish origin Idil Nuna Baydar and her alter ego Jilet Ayşe, and Egon Tobiáš’s comic strip Titanium Stalks continues with its ninth instalment.
On Faust! The Polish director Jan Klata directed Goethe’s Faust at Divadlo pod Palmovkou. Expectations were high because Klata’s collaboration with this theatre last year (Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure) won the critics’ award for the Best Production of 2018. In the survey we spoke to Josef Herman, Radmila Hrdinová, Josef Chuchma, Jana Machalická, Marie Reslová, Ondřej Škrabal and Jakub Škorpil. There was general agreement that the production goes beyond the limits of a common Czech repertoire and at the same time the respondents stressed Klata’s uncompromising directorial approach, his sense of stylization and distinctive work with the original. However, at the same time they expressed doubts as to whether he has succeeded in creating such a compact and enclosed production as the last time. These reservations are then echoed in answers to the question as to whether Klata succeeded in “justifying” the incorporation of the sparsely staged second part of Faust. The most frequent reservations here were that this decision prolongs the production both “factually and emotionally” and that the kaleidoscopic arrangement of the acts (although already conditioned by the original) does not help the general impression of the production. Moreover, Klata introduces – particularly through the disabled and falsetto-voiced Margaret – many references based on Polish life and institutions (including a vigorous critique of the Catholic Church) which are difficult for Czech audiences to grasp. As a result – as most of those questioned also raised in the comparison of Measure for Measure and Faust – this is a performance which wanders, its impact unfocused and in places the choice of themes and the directorial methods are almost haphazard. In comparison with the earlier Shakespearean production, Faust also lacks any truly distinctive dramatic performances.