Miroslav Petříček
THE FATAL TEMPTATION TO EXIST
Emil Cioran: Orgy of Emptiness
Karel Haloun
IN A COUNTRY WHERE TODAY MEANS BOTH YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW
truth and lies on the road – vol. 11
Petr Fischer
TRUTH OF AN EYE-WITNESS
documentary papers – vol. 11
STOPPING SOON
Per Gessle and his essay
EWALD MURRER
COUNSELS
from upcoming collection Traumonium
NEWE DIRECTIONS FOR USE 6/2021
Martin J. ŠVEJDA
REALY QUITE COOL
The Evil Deer by The Depressive Children
Václav Kliment Klicpera: The Evil Deer, dir. Jakub Čermák, Depresivní děti touží po penězích, 2021
Ester Žantovská
WOMEN IN HALF-LIFE
Into Darkness and Death Girl
Anna Bolavá, Magdaléna Borová: Into Darkness, dir. Anna Klimešová, Jatka78, 2021; Dagmar Fričová, Lucie Faulerová: Death Girl, dir. Lucie Ferenzová, A Studio Rubín, 2021
Vladimír Mikulka
OH GOD, WHAT NOW?
Vassa Zheleznova at National Theatre
Maxim Gorkij: Vassa Zheleznova, dir. Jan Frič, Národní divadlo, 2021
Josef Rubeš
DOČEKAL’S HORROR VACUI
Hamlet at ABC Theatre
William Shakespeare: Hamlet, dir. Michal Dočekal, Městská divadla Pražská – ABC, 2021
Michaela MOJŽIŠOVÁ
WHO ARE YOU, PETER GRIMES?
in Brno and Vienna
Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, cond. Marko Ivanović, dir. David Radok, Národní divadlo Brno, 2021; Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, cond. Thomas Giggeis, dir. Christof Loy, Theater an der Wien, 2021
Vladimír Mikulka
IF YOU LOSE YOUR GRACE, YOU WILL DIE
100 Most Beautiful Czech Poems
Jiří Adámek and Klára Hutečková: 100 Most Beautiful Czech Poems, dir. J.Adámek, Městská divadla pražská – Komedie, 2021
Kateřina Lesch
WAITING FOR SOUND
People Pacing Back and Forth
People Pacing Back and Forth / for piano and several performers, dir. Jiří Austerlitz, Boca Loca Lab, 2021
Jana Návratová
INVISIBLE
Invisible II .
Invisible II. Barbora Kaufmannová, dir. Miřenka Čechová, Tantehorse, 2021
Barbora Etlíková
TACTILE ASSOCIATIONS – HAPTIC IMMERSIONS
PYL: ČBRŠK and Reality Surfing
PYL: ČBRŠK, dir. Maria Komarova, PYL, 2018; PYL: Reality Surfing, by Světlana Silič, Maria Komarova, PYL, 2021
THEATRE AS A COGNITIVE INCONGRUITY
Tomáše Procházka’s interview with Petre Gonda
Hana Pavelková
CLIMATE CRISIS AS FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE
drama written by native communities of North America
FEAR
Barbora ETLÍKOVÁ and Karel KRÁL – intergenerational interview between Barbora Etlíková and Karel Král, incoming editor and out-going editor-in-chief of the Svět a divadlo
Karel Král
THE CELETNÁ AFFAIR AND MY WITHDRAWAL FROM THE SVĚT A DIVADLO MAGAZINE
JIŘÍ POKORNÝ
ROUEN 44
LEON OSPALD
PAVEL AND BUREAU
FROM EVOLUTION REVOLUTION AND THE OTHER WAY ROUND 6/2021
UNDER SURVELIANCE OF GUARDIANS
interview with Leon Ospald
S.d.Ch.
CONCISE ANATOMY OF GROUNDLESS QUALMS (or Castle of Vampires or The Paranoia of Ageing Actress)
KLIMÁČEK DANGLÁR
DVOJČA 12 LEDERHOSE
fantasy comics about final battle between theatre and television in our as well as parallel world
The issue opens with Miroslav Petříček’s essay “The Fatal Temptation to Exist”, which presents an excerpt from Emil Cioran’s text “Orgy of Emptiness”. The eleventh and final instalment of Karel Haloun’s “truth and lies on the road” series, entitled “In a Country where Today Means Both Yesterday and Tomorrow”, is dedicated to Japan, and the final “documentary paper” by Petr Fischer, “Truth of an Eye-witness”, is about the Holocaust, with documentaries from Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah to The Lost Home Movies from Nazi Germany. The section “Doubts… Will Be Over in No Time” closes with “Stopping Soon”, a reflection by Per Gessle. In the last instalment from the series “New directions for use” Ewald Murrer returns, this time with his poetical “Counsels”. The section “Dramatic… Drama” presents reflections on The Evil Deer by The Depressive Children (Martin J. Švejda: “Really Quite Cool”), Into Darkness from Jatka78, and Death Girl from A studio Rubín (Ester Žantovská: “Women in Half-Life”), Vassa Zheleznova from the National Theatre (Vladimír Mikulka: “Oh God, What Now?”), and Hamlet from ABC Theatre (Josef Rubeš: “Dočekal’s Horror Vacui”). In her essay “Who are You, Peter Grimes?” Michaela Mojžišová considers new productions of Benjamin Britten’s opera, both at the National Theatre Brno (directed by David Radok) and at Theater an der Wien (Christof Loy). “Odd… Oddities” renders two new productions by Jiří Adámek-Austerlitz, experimenting with the theatre of music and poetry: his 100 Most Beautiful Czech Poems (Mikulka: “If You Lose Your Grace, You Will Die”) and People Pacing Back and Forth (Kateřina Lesch: “Waiting for Sound”). A voyeuristic glance into the fate of the former prima ballerina Barbora Kaufmannová is offered by the production Invisible II. by Miřenka Čechová and Tantehorse (Jana Návratová: “The Invisible One”). The productions ČBRŠK and Reality Surfing by the PYL ensemble balance on the border between artistic installation and children’s play (Barbora Etlíková: “Tactile Associations – Haptic Immersions”). Peter Gonda (in an interview with Tomáš Procházka: “Theatre as a Cognitive Incongruity”) looks at documentary theatre with non-actors performing in interaction with machines and computers in the production OK Carbon. Hana Pavelková follows up her essay about British dystopian plays with the text “Climate Crisis as First-hand Experience” on drama written by native communities of North America. The section “The Cause… Fear” is dedicated to the retirement of Karel Král, the editor-in-chief of the Svět a divadlo magazine (q.v.). “Lederhose” is the title of the final instalment of the twelve-piece comic strip “The Twin” “about the struggle between theatre and television” by creative team Klimáček-Danglár. While the prime play of the issue is Jiří Pokorný’s Rouen 44 about dilemmas of people living in occupied France, in the play Pavel and Bureau that closes this year’s series of short come-dies written for SAD magazine, its author Leon Ospald focuses on a totally contemporary struggle with bureaucracy, and in Concise Anatomy of Groundless Qualms – the third play of this issue – by S.d.Ch., an ageing actress pursues a grotesque correspondence with her computer superordinate, a screening careerist of a new kind.
Fear, the “Celetná Affair” and Karel Král’s Withdrawal “Fear” is the title and theme of an intergenerational interview between Barbora Etlíková and Karel Král, incoming editor and out-going editor-in-chief of the Svět a divadlo (World and Theatre) magazine. It deals with the fear of climate change, overcoming apprehensions of ruling authorities, fear of the direct naming of problems, lack of organization and the shifting of responsibility by governmental officers, as well as the timid sycophancy of theatre makers. Fear also manifested itself in the so-called “Celetná Affair” when it turned out that the state and the capital Prague were not able to cooperate and instead led a legal war over movable assets, in this case the seat of the Arts Institute in Celetná Street in Prague. The city has taken as hostages the Svět a divadlo magazine and editorial offices of other theatrical periodicals that have been tenants in this building for decades. Karel Král writes about this situation in his report “The Celetná Affair and My Withdrawal from the Svět a divadlo Magazine”. So far, the futile endeavours of the editor-in-chief of Svět a divadlo, the chairman of the Czech Centre AICT/IACT committee and the representative of the Czech Centre ITI committee to change the conduct of the authorities has run up against the unreliability of the municipality, and also a lack of solidarity and frightened silence on the part of colleagues. “Conformity and cowardice, which I remember from the times of communism, are unbearable for me. Therefore I have decided to resign from all my professional roles at the end of this year (and a volume of the magazine), and after 32 years I am also going to leave the position of the editor-in-chief of the Svět a divadlo magazine (though it is – as they say – my child).”