SAD 3/2024
Rather then do it stupidly, it is better not to do it at all
interview with Boris Klepal, an opera critic
Radmila Hrdinová
A National Gem or A Live Opera?
three untraditional stagings of Prodaná nevěsta
Michaela Mojžišová
Two Times Richard Strauss: at Prague and Rome
Lukáš Dubský
On the Pitfalls of Marriage
Sondheim’s Company at Pilsen and Beograd
Radmila Hrdinová
The Cunning Vixen B. from Nowhere in Moravia
Miroslav Krobot directs at Olomouc
Pavlína Hořejšová
To the Deeps with Andersen
The Little Mermaid at Minor
To feel, what director breaths out
interview with theatre and movie score composer Jakub Kudláč
Musical is not a Czech Language Lesson
interview with translator Mikuláš Bryan
Josef Rubeš
Question Marks over the Buraj Method
artistic director of HaDivadlo on his way to Prague
Barbora Sedláková
Taming the Past with Words
Annie Ernaux’s A Woman’s Story at MeetFactory
Alice Jedličková
Image, Sound, Body
stage dialogues with literary universe of Annie Ernaux
Zuzana Augustová
The Strong Nora of Three Women Authors
at Münchner Kammerspiele
Barbora Schnelle
Old Stories for a New Age?
new women narratives at Deutsches Theater Berlin
Jakub Škorpil
What Happened Before Olive Left Popeye
Sivan Ben Yishai at Divadlo Letí
JEN SILVERMAN: THE MOORS
The topic of this issue is musical theatre, and music in the theatre. The section is introduced by an interview with the opera critic and journalist Boris Klepal (“It’s Better Not to Do It At All Than Do It Idiotically”) about the state of Czech operatic theatre and the critical appreciation of it. Radmila Hrdinová continues with her essay “National Gem or Lively Opera?” on three unorthodox productions of The Bartered Bride, the “Czech national opera” by composer Bedřich Smetana whose bicentenary is celebrated this year. Michaela Mojžišová writes in her essay “Two Times Richard Strauss” about a Prague production of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos directed by Sláva Daubnerová, and about a revival of Barrie Kosky’s and conductor Marc Albrecht’s Salome at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. Musicals are covered by Lukáš Dubský (“On Intrigues of Marriage”) who writes about productions of Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s musical Company in the Pilsen J. K. Tyla theatre (directed by Vilém Dubnička) and in Belgrade’s Opera i teatar Madlenianum (directed by Nebojša Bradić). Two following reviews touch on the fringe of drama and musical theatre: Radmila Hrdinová (“The Cunning Vixen B. from Nowhere in Moravia”) writes about a distinctive and very musical adaptation of The Cunning Little Vixen directed by Miroslav Krobot at the Moravian Theatre Olomouc, and Pavlína Hořejšová about a production of The Little Mermaid at the Prague Theatre Minor, adapted and directed by Tomáš Jarkovský and Jakub Vašíček (“To the Deeps with Andersen”). The section concludes with an interview with Jakub Kudláč, recent winner in the Music of the Year category in the annual critic survey, and a sought-after theatre and movie composer (in 2021 he won the Czech Film and Television Academy prize for the film Shadow Country). Musical theatre and, particularly, musicals are also considered in the next instalment of the interview series “Translations and Translators”. Jitka Šotkovská and Mikuláš Bryan discuss the specifics and practice of translating musical librettos under the title “A Musical is not a Czech Language Lesson”. In the essay “Question Marks on the Buraj Method” Josef Rubeš writes about two directions by Ivan Buraj – O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night at the Theatre in Dlouhá Street and Jean-Luc Lagarce’s It’s Only the End of the World at Hadivadlo in Brno, which Buraj is leaving at the end of the next season to become the artistic director at Dlouhá Street. The closing section is entitled “Women’s Narratives” and begins with Barbora Sedláková’s review (“To Vanquish the Past with Words”) of an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s novel A Woman’s Story, staged at the MeetFactory Prague and directed by Eliška Říhová. Alice Jedličková writes about the same production in her essay “Picture, Sound, Body”, together with an adaptation of another Ernaux novel Shame, staged at the Volkstheater in Vienna and directed by Ed. Hauswirth. Zuzana Augustová’s essay “A Strong Nora of Three Women Authors” looks at the production Nora. Ein thriller which is a re-interpretation and adaptation of the classic Ibsen drama, with Sivan Ben Yishai, Gerhild Steinbuch and Ivna Žic and directed at Münchner Kammerspiele by Felicitas Brückner. While Sivan Ben Yishai’s partially involved in the production, the play Nora or How to Digest the Master’s House is her genuine and thoroughly thought out rewriting of the well-known original. Barbora Schnelle writes about the production at Deutschers Theater Berlin directed by Anica Tomić in her essay “Old Stories for a New Age” where she also considers a retelling of the Nibelungen Saga by the Austrian author Ferdinand Schmalz, also staged at the Deutsches Theater Berlin under the title Hildensaga. The Drama of Queens directed by Markus Bothe. The section closes with Jakub Škorpil’s review (“What Happened Before Olive Left Popey”) on the first production of a Sivan Ben Yishai’s play on a Czech stage – a production of Love/Training in Argumentation presented by the Letí theatre, directed by Kasha Jandáčková. The play of this issue is The Moors by American author Jen Silverman in a translation by Ester Žantovská, a distinctive variation on a Brontëan theme also emphasizing the women’s point of view.
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