Czech Theatre 21

Czech
THEATRE
17 21
Contents
Marie Reslov
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Jan Kerbr
The Return of J. A. P. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Marie Reslov
Zbradl after Lbl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Marie Reslov
Shaping (and Captivity) through the Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Jana Patokov
Bernhard as an Opportunity for an Actor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Radmila Hrdinov
German Theatre Returns to Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

mr
Viktor Kronbauer Photographs the Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Ondej Hun
Falling Asleep in the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Roman Vaek
How they Ballet in Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Nina Malkov
The DNO Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

CZECH THEATRE 21
Issued by Theatre Institute Prague Director / Ondej ern Responsible editor / Marie Reslov Editors / Zbynk ernk, Kamila ern, Jana Patokov Translation / Barbara Day, Gerr y Turner, Don Nixon Cover and graphical layout / Egon L. Tobi Technical realization / DTP Studio Hamlet Printed by / Tiskrna TOBOLA, Jinonick 329, Praha 5
June 2005 Editors e-mail: editio@divadlo. cz Subscription: Divadeln stav, Celetn 17, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic fax: 00420 2232 6100, e-mail: publik@divadlo. cz 2005 Divadeln stav Praha ISSN 0862-9380
cover: Rudolf Tsnohldek, Cunning Little Vixen / Slovck divadlo, Uhersk Hradit 2004 directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Michaela Hoej >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
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EDITORIAL
Editorial
or years, an idea or rather, a prejudice has existed among theatre people that, in the wider context, only a production by a well-known theatre company can make a name for itself. Jan Antonn Pitnsk, since the end of the 1980s one of the most expressive directors of the Czech theatre, has recently convinced people that a production created in a provincial or fringe theatre can find its way to the top of notional artistic charts. The article The Return of J. A. P. is about Pitnsks recent work, in particular The Dolls House (Theatre 7 and a Half [Divadlo v 7 a pl]) and The Cunning Little Vixen (Lika Bystrouka, Moravian Slovak Theatre [Slovck divadlo] in Uhersk Hradit). These made a striking impact not only on critical questionnaires and festival programmes, but also on media awareness and audience numbers of the above mentioned (until now over-looked) theatres. The theatre director Petr Lbl, whose death six years ago brought to a tragic end his successful career at the Theatre on the Balustrades (Divadlo Na zbradl), was in his way irreplaceable. How has this theatre which this year won the Alfrd Radok Theatre of the Year Award, for the first time since Lbls death coped with his departure? The article Zbradl after Lbl outlines the situation in the
Ernst Jandl, Enstrangement
Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 directed by Jan Nebesk set Jan tpnek costumes Jana Prekov
>Photo Bohdan Holomek
Theatre on the Balustrades and its new projects. Two prize-winning productions of plays by Germanspeaking authors which we review here (Shaping [and captivity] through the Word and Bernhard as an Opportunity for the Actor), anticipate other material in an article called German Theatre Returns to Bohemia. Ten years of this festival which presents German, Austrian and Swiss theatres and theatre-makers in the Czech Lands and also the close contacts of some Czech directors with the German language field have strikingly influenced not only the repertoire but the production style of Czech stages. The photographer Viktor Kronbauer won two Honourable Mentions at the Triennial in Nov Sad. We present two of his highly regarded sets of photography in the article Viktor Kronbauer Photographs the Theatre. The portrait of opera director Ji Heman Falling Asleep in the Sea, A Maritime Double The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti depicts an exceptional and unusually consistent personality of a young opera director. Reviews of his most recent productions The Flying Dutchman and Laments form part of this portrait. The ballet scene in the Czech Republic and its transformations is broadly mapped in How they Ballet in Bohemia, which also presents some highly-praised choreography. The article The Phenomenon DNO describes an amateur theatre group in Hradec Krlov which has established itself in the professional sphere. Marie Reslov
The Return of
Jan Kerbr
J . A . P.
Rudolf Tsnohldek, Cunning Little Vixen / Slovck divadlo, Uhersk Hradit 2004
directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Michaela Hoej >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
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THE RETURN OF J. A. P.
At the beginning of the new millennium the director Jan Antonn Pitnsk (pseudonym of Zdenk Petrelka), following a series of superb productions in the second half of the 1990s (four of them won the most prestigious award of the Czech theatre the Alfrd Radok Award, most recently in 1999 for a production of Thomas Bernhards The Theatre-maker [Der Theatermacher] at the Theatre on the Balustrades), chose to take a breathing space. The hectic rate of work on leading Czech stages was exchanged for a more placid rhythm linked with a tendency to turn his back on cultural centres and focus on work in his native south Moravia Zln, Uhersk Hradit and Brno.
Vilm and Alois Mrtk, Marya / Divadlo Andreja Bagra, Nitra 2003 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Juraj Fbry / costumes Alexandra Gruskov
>Photos archives
J . A . P.
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t the end of 2002 Pitnsk worked on a production of Dostoievskis Brothers Karamazov in the Moravian Slovak Theatre (Slovck divadlo) in Uhersk Hradit. The adaptation of this demanding novel was only a partial success, but his striking imprint as a director showed a new strength. The challengingly structured mise-en-scne, imposing collective acting and an emphasis on the choreographic concept of the stage situations, inspired an artistic surge within this theatre company, rejuvenated by new actors, promisingly disciplined, and thirsty for new impulses (in 2004 the Moravia Slovak Theatre was nominated for the Alfrd Radok Award in the category Theatre of the Year). Some protagonists still resorted to simplified, exaggeratedly drawn characters in the complicated soul-searching peripetias of action and exalted situations of the production; many however created remarkably nuanced characters (Josef Kubnk as Smerdyakov, Mra Zavir as the Devil).
"#Vilm and Alois Mrtk, Marya / Divadlo Andreja Bagra, Nitra 2003 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Juraj Fbry / costumes Alexandra Gruskov >Photos archives
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In 2003 Pitnsk returned to neighbouring Slovakia, to the Andrej Bagar Theatre (Divadlo Andreje Bagra) in Nitra, where he rehearsed one of the major Czech classics, Marya, by Alois and Vilm Mrtk. At that time his earlier production of Marya was still running at the National Theatre (Nrodn divadlo) in Prague. Even though some moments from his Prague production were repeated (the scene played on two levels), his Slovak interpretation of Marya substantially shifted the interpretation of the country love story. The setting in harmony with the temperament of this region tends towards greater emotion and cruelty. Unlike traditional ways of staging this play, which are set in country interiors or a farmyard, the Nitra production is set on the platform of a country railway station, a public place, which from time to time magically opens into the usual domestic environment (set by Juraj Fbry). Everything moves towards an image of life as a sojourn and movement along a path (here on rails). The
$Vilm and Alois Mrtk, Marya / Divadlo Andreja Bagra, Nitra 2003
directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Juraj Fbry / costumes Alexandra Gruskov
>Photos archives
Henrik Ibsen, The Dolls House / Divadlo v 7 a pl, Brno 2004 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Tom Rusn / costumes Zuzana tefunkov
>Photo Viktor Kronbauer
J . A . P.
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Henrik Ibsen, The Dolls House / Divadlo v 7 a pl, Brno 2004 /directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Tom Rusn / costumes Zuzana tefunkov >Photo Karel Slach
tragedy of a young woman forced by her parents to marry a miller she does not love, the widower Vvra opens with a striking rustic scene of the departure of recruits to military service. An obvious role is played by alcohol in the exuberant wild dancing and singing; however, sobriety quickly follows. One of the recruits, Maryas lover Francek, an untamed colt whose feelings one could be justified in doubting, is going on military service. Marya succumbs to merciless pressure and marries Vvra. When Francek returns he meets the careworn Marya and persuades her to run away with him. Maryas parents, who have meantime gone to court with Vvra over her dowry, put pressure on their daughter to return home. Vvra humiliates and beats
her. The unhappy Marya chooses a different solution she poisons her unloved husband. In this production the resonances of her story are somewhat more merciful: it seems that Vvra may have survived the rat poison but, weakened by pain, he loses orientation and ends under the wheels of a train. Francek puts Marya, who in the original version is to be punished for her deed, on his bicycle and carries the helpless woman away. In this production of Marya, the set served the director as a starting point for an interpretation of the model; in his next production it literally created the basic mood of the environment. For The Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen (2004) in the Brno Theatre 7 and a Half (Divadlo v 7 a pl) the designer
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%Ladislav Stroupenick, Our Swaggerers / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2004 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Jan Hubnek / costumes Kateina tefkov
>Photo Hana Smejkalov
Tom Rusn designed an oppressive tunnel of gloomily tinted panels made of pressed wooden waste, in which Nora can neither stand up nor breathe. Contrasting with this feeling is the sunny opening (evoking Italian films of the 1960s), full of what is the end of lightheartedness. The couple have returned from a holiday in Italy, referred to also in the southern melodies and the wardrobe accessories (sunglasses). However, the drama thickens in a northern way, and the servant even wears a trolls mask. The savage shadows of the past projected into the story are created, as well as by other means, by wild escapades (Dr. Ranks despairing tap-dancing number, as though to save himself from a fall). Pitnsk solved the frequently conjectured finale of Ibsens model (e.g., in a production at the Berlin Schaubhne directed by Thomas Ostermeier, Nora literally shoots her husband) with the help of the sensitive young actors Dana Rikov (Nora) and Vclav Neuil (Helmer): the despairing reproaches of her selfish husband who does not intend to do without his property/wife and
$Rudolf Tsnohldek, Cunning Little Vixen / Slovck divadlo,
Uhersk Hradit 2004 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Michaela Hoej
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their physical closeness changes into murder. Helmer strangles Nora, maybe unintentionally rather than otherwise. He does it to the refrain of the French chanson: Cest fini, Capri! At the international Theatre festival in Pilsen (September 2004) Pitnsk daringly made use of the set offered him by a half-abandoned suburban station. In the devastated interiors of a corridor and a waiting room, the actors incorporated into the play the crumbling plaster of the walls, a disquieting journey into nothingness appropriately complemented by the passing of trains. In 2004 Pitnsk directed Lubo Balks Stars Above Baltimore (Hvzdy nad Baltimore) in the Goose on a String Theatre (Husa na provzku) in Brno. This was about the fate of the King of Czech Comics Vlasta Burian who was, after the end of World War II, expediently accused of collaboration with the Nazis. The leading role was played by Bolek Polvka, an actor whose place in the heavens of Czech entertainment is indisputable, and who is in some sense Burians heir. Pitnsk provided him sufficient room for improvisation, and at the same time tried to breathe into the uneven text the uneasy atmosphere of totalitarianism, in which he was more or less successful. However, the production did not rouse itself sufficiently to make a strong impact, mainly because of the script.
Pitnsks 1999 Marya in the National Theatre in Prague was one of his most successful productions, both artistically and with audiences. The new, more progressive leadership of this drama company then invited this director from the provincial circuit to stage another Czech national classic. Stroupenicks Our Swaggerers (Nai furianti) is a well written, realistic and bitter comedy set in a village environment. Two local roosters well-to-do farmers and councillors are landed in a conflict through their own pettiness. Essentially the whole community, not only their families, gets involved. Among other casualties is the first love between children of the two families. The piece ends with reconciliation, but not with a cheap happy end. A certain aftertaste of pompous chauvinism, intolerance, pride and envy is left behind. Pitnsk treats the material with respect, and his small interpolations (some of them extempore) are acceptable to relatively conservative audiences. Stars of the company Miroslav Donutil and Ji tpnika shine in the roles of the roosters. Pitnsks production is not among his very best, but its solid worth and good taste brought the National Theatre success with a widely ranging audience. However, Pitnsk again spread his theatrical wings in Uhersk Hradit. He dramatised Rudolf Tsnohl-
Rudolf Tsnohldek, Cunning Little Vixen / Slovck divadlo, Uhersk Hradit 2004 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Michaela Hoej
J . A . P.
Rudolf Tsnohldek, Cunning Little Vixen / Slovck divadlo, Uhersk Hradit 2004 / directed by J. A. Pitnsk / set Michaela Hoej
deks Cunning Little Vixen (Lika Bystrouka), the story made famous through Leo Janeks opera. Pitnsk rehearsed this parable about love and the unity which pervades all forms of life in nature with an outstanding company in the grand style. A significant part in the magnificent result was also played by Igor Dostleks choreography, using inspiration from Japanese fighting techniques to supplement movement characteristic of animals. Jitka Joskov in the role of the Little Vixen (nominated as Best Actress in the Czech Thalia Awards) and Zdenk Trlek as the dog Lapk were particularly worthy of attention. However, the collective work was balanced, with resonances of Pitnsks anchorage in his
native locality. The co-existence of humans and animals in the foresters abode brings a number of tragic-comic situations and parallels between the world of men and of domestic animals. The scenes in the forest are of a more philosophical nature, its grandeur arching over the high and the low in reconciliation, primarily in the field of animal instincts. The production, without any kind of moralising simplification, deals with life and death as the natural course of the world. The powers of nature, which Pitnsk tenderly and at times explosively evokes in his best work, bring energy to these productions. His direction belongs to the best the Czech theatre can presently offer.
The Return of J. A. P.
Zbradl
Marie Reslov
after Lbl
Gabriela Preissov, Farmers Woman / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 / directed

by Ji Pokorn / set Jan tpnek / costumes Kateina tefkov >Photo Vanda Hybnerov
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ZBRADL AFTER LBL
The Theatre on the Balustrades (Divadlo Na zbradl) one of the smallest Prague stages with an intimate auditorium holding hardly 200 is a stage with an exceptional genius loci. Ever since its foundation in the 1958 there has been a tradition of outstanding, original and controversial directors: for example, Ivan Vyskoil, Jan Grossman, Evald Schorm and most recently Petr Lbl. The Balustrades wa s t h e ve n u e fo r p ro d u c t i o n s w h i ch m ove d t h e h i s to r y o f m o d e r n C z e ch t h e a t re fo r wa rd .
ZBRADL AFTER LBL
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ix years have passed since the tragic departure of Petr Lbl. That is the same length of time he held the position of artistic director at the Theatre on the Balustrades (199399), a period which saw the origin of what are today renowned productions, especially the Chekhov triptych The Seagull (1994), Ivanov (1997) and Uncle Vanya (1999). After his death Petr Lbl became a legend and the theatre company felt orphaned, with everyone wringing their hands over its future. Who could take over the post-Lbl theatre? It was the triumvirate of J. A. Pitnsk (director), Ji Ornest (actor and director) and Ivana Slmov (dramaturge) which took on the artistic leadership in the period of shock after the loss of their beloved and cursed chief, a man who breathed with his theatre and looked after not only its artistic growth, but also (with his own hands) the original decoration of the auditorium. With the departure of the nomadic Pitnsk, two of the triumvirate remained A definitive successor to Lbl, who succeeded Ji Ornest in a two-man government, was found in 2002 in the person of the director and dramatist Ji Pokorn ( Czech Theatre 20), a theatre personality whose work arouses as much controversy as that of Lbl. This year the Theatre on the Balustrades experienced another resurrection when after an interval of several years during which it was searching for its own new face, it won the Alfrd Radok Theatre of the Year Award and found itself at the top of the notional chart in the number of nominations for the Alfrd Radok Award in other categories. The most striking of Pokorns productions in his current leadership mission has been The Farmers Woman (Gazdina roba) by Gabriela Preissov. This play, more than a century old like Petr Lbls adaptation of Stroupenicks Our Our Swaggerers (Nai nai furianti) and Vladimr Morveks production of Marya by the Mrtk brothers tells without sentiment something essential and true about the mentality of people and not only the Czech people. It shows with dramatic irony the collision of an exceptional, powerful personality with generally accepted conventions, with social and religious prejudices, the conflict of selfishness and love. Pokorns adaptation of the play is not a forcible up-dating, but primarily a dramatically truthful attempt to think over the fate of the eponymous heroine Eva the seamstress. All at once and completely naturally the century-old circumstances of her story turn into contemporary action and characters. Jan tpneks set articulates the tiny Balustrades stage vertically, into several levels. At the beginning we find ourselves in a space which evokes the hall of a village pub, with forgotten decorations from some meeting or other. The inept compere tries mixing Hungarian, Slovak and Czech to organise a folkloric custom the prestigious election of the strek and strka. The combination of the embar#Gabriela Preissov, Farmers Woman / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 / directed by Ji Pokorn / set Jan tpnek / costumes Kateina tefkov >Photos Vanda Hybnerov "David Radok, Josef Kroutvor, The Description of a Struggle
Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2005 / directed by and set David Radok costumes Katarna Holl >Photos Viktor Kronbauer
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ZBRADL AFTER LBL
rassment, ridiculousness, arrogance and sexuality of it all is mainly reminiscent of a pub entertainment in the early films of Milo Forman. Everything is observed, cheered and commented on from above by the mothers who lobby for the good fortune of their children. That is how the story of Eva and Mnek begins; the story of the poor dressmaker, Lutheran, and the landowners son, Catholic, bound to one another by a fateful attraction of body and spirit which is in sharp conflict with the generally accepted convention of a marriage of equals. This however is what the landowners wife, Mejanovka, has prepared for her son. Eva, humbled by her circumstances, above all by
the pugnacious aggression of the elderly Mejanovka, makes the first treacherous step she denies her feeling and in spite of everything wants to show that she is worthy of honour, even that she is better than they are. She accepts the love of the lame furrier Samek as her lot and marries him. Mnek marries the bride chosen for him by his mother. There is not long to wait for the tragic clash; under the pressure of events, above all the death of her only daughter, Eva again in spite of everything throws herself into Mneks embrace, where the tragic fate of a fallen woman awaits her. The weakly calculating Mnek returns to his family in the end. Eva following the logic of her
ZBRADL AFTER LBL
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uncompromising character chooses death as the way out. Pokorns direction does not construct, but discovers the hidden, subconscious motivations of the characters and tries to lead the actors to their sometimes drastically sincere release. It is by far not only convention and the weakness of Mneks character which irrevocably brings Eva to her tragic end. It is also her sometimes chronic defiance and overestimation of her strength. The black apparition of Kristina Madroviov in the title role evokes the appearance of the heroines of Greek tragedies: her closefitting black costume and black hair, her beautiful, strikingly sculptured and strangely peaceful face glowing as something distinctive from the others, almost morbid; the fascinating, fateful gravitation towards death. Mnek in David vehlks interpretation an ambitious young man, clearly dependent even physically on his mother and on his prestige is almost magically attracted to Eva and her pure uncompromising strength. His final decision does not function only as a betrayal but, in its way, even as a selfdefensive instinct. The pugnacious, abhorrent manipulation of Mneks mother and the demagogy of the handicapped Samko play unpropitious roles. And naturally, slanderous, sensation-seeking public opinion, parasiting itself on Evas story, has its share in the guilt. In the best sense of the word, Pokorns direction is a succeessor to the modern interpretation of the classic Czech dramas from the end of the 19th century; wisely, entertainingly and in an aesthetically original way. The production was justly nominated for the Alfrd Radok Awards in the category of Production of the Year. The guest direction of David Radok (son of the legendary Czech director Alfrd Radok) was a theatre sensation of a kind. Radok is a very successful director of operas whose production of The Description of a Struggle (Popis jednoho zpasu) at the Theatre on the Balustrades was de facto his
#David Radok, Josef Kroutvor, The Description of a Struggle / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2005
directed by and set David Radok costumes Katarna Holl >Photos Viktor Kronbauer
first attempt at directing in the straight theatre. The production, based on motifs in the life and work of Franz Kafka (script by David Radok and Josef Kroutvor), resembles a musical composition, a stylised stage picture in movement. Whilst the script continually following Kafkas life and his obsessive themes did not bring much new in the Czech lands (which are chronically overKafkaed), the magically lit and perfectionist choreographed stage action fascinated the audience. In the Eliade Library, a studio space on the theatres second floor which Lbl dreamt up and realised, the cycle of readings of contemporary plays (Czech and foreign) has continued for the whole six years. The theatre wanted in this way to revive interest in contemporary material and to rouse authors and translators to work. Thanks to this inconspicuous but consistent work since 2000 some three dozen or so plays have been read in the Eliade library of the Theatre on the Balustrades. Last year exchange cooperation also developed with the New Dramatists, the New York centre for dramatic work. And in the end the Theatre on the Balustrades resolved to undertake what was essentially a publicity stunt: from mid-April to mid-June 2005 it produced on the main stage four (albeit small) plays written to the theatres commission. In the context of a cycle called Czechoslovak Spring 2005 (the authors come from both halves of the sundered state) the following plays were staged: Marek Horok: W. ascertained that the war is in him (W. zjistil, e vlka je v nm, directed by Ji Pokorn); Michal Hvoreck: Plush (Ply, directed by Skutr Kukuka, Trpiovsk); Valerie Schulzov and Iva Volnkov: Barbins (Barbny, directed by Valerie Schulzov) and Milo Urban: Knives and Roses (Noe a re, directed by David Czesany). Small productions came into existence, studies whose point is to research contemporary themes and their appropriate theatrical resources in movement rather than
$Marek Horok, Ji Pokorn, W. Ascertained that the War is in him / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha
2005 / directed by Ji Pokorn / set Jan B. Novk costumes Kateina tefkov
>Photo Martin pelda
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ZBRADL AFTER LBL
Marek Horok, Ji Pokorn, W. Ascertained that the War is in him / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2005 / directed by Ji Pokorn
set Jan B. Novk / costumes Kateina tefkov >Photos Martin pelda
create a complete theatrical work. As a whole these authorial experiments confirm the contemporary trend of a certain Formalism in staging, when the creators prefer to solve the issue of how to express themselves, by what stage means. They rely on intuitively or subconsciously formed images without concerning themselves too much with what they express, that is, the exact formulation and construction of a text or just a story. It seems that the Theatre on the Balustrades stands again at the beginning of another stage of its existence, it is not afraid to experiment or to search for risky projects. The daring production of the formally very unusual script by Ernst Jandl (Estrangement) directed by Jan Nebesk (see
the article Shaping (and captivity) through the Word) brought this theatre the most highly prized award: the Alfrd Radok Production of the Year Award 2004.
Gabriela Preissov: The Farmers Woman. Directed by Ji Pokorn, set by Jan tpnek, costumes by Kateina tefkov, music by Michal Nik. Theatre on the Balustrades, premiere 16 May 2004. David Radok, Josef Kroutvor: The Description of a Struggle. Directed by David Radok, costumes by Katarna Holl. Theatre on the Balustrades, premiere 12 March 2005.
Zbradl after Lbl
Shaping (and Captivity)

through the
Ernst Jandl, Enstrangement / Divadlo Na zbradl,
Praha 2004 / directed by Jan Nebesk / set Jan tpnek costumes Jana Prekov >Photo Bohdan Holomek
Word
Marie Reslov
they appear as the observed and the observer at the same time. The view of daily existence, a little strange and childishly nave but at the same time suffuciantly narcissistic and selfcentred, combines sometimes with the obsessive descriptions of stereotyped operations (drinking, eating, going to sleep, getting up) and the spiritual states. All three characters speak about themselves and to themselves exclusively in the third person. In this way they immediately convey a certain distance with a view to their own person, to other people, and to reality itself. They change angles of view surprisingly, so that we are This spoken opera by the Austrian poet and dramatist Ernst Jandl never certain in what relationship to reality they are at a given moment, Estrangement (Aus der Fremde), staged by Jan Nebesk, brings again to the and how they will handle it, turn it in Theatre on the Balustrades (Divadlo Na zbradl) a text and production their own ludicrously complicated which in a worthy way connect with the best traditions of this stage in perception. In the interpretation by the sense of intellectual challenges, selective humour, charismatic the three outstanding actors (Alois performances, but above all a deep existential unease. Jan vehlk, Marie Mlkov and David Nebesks production (which won the prestigious Alfrd Radok Award vehlk) whom Nebesk has cast in 2004) interprets a difficult text with almost surprising levity, even this production, this reality is truly a source of sophisticated and simply amusingly: as a self-ironising dispute not only about writing as self- irresistible humour. All three actors shaping, but also about the burdens of everyday life, love and human and this is the highest possible existence in general. And therefore about death. praise become for us confident guides in the meanderings and andls text exceeds all conventional ideas about plays unexpected peripetias of thought and perception of their for the stage. It is reminiscent of a poem in its division characters. In their roles they succeed in showing us not into numbered tercets. Its content is a wittily annotated only how the characters are troubled by their somewhat description of oneself: how He (writer, author and character overblown thinking and by the banality of their life, but at of the play) goes through one ordinary day, for the most part the same time how they are able to enjoy their situation, alone. For a small part of the day (the evening) he even though they are permanently aware of its entertains a girlfriend at home, also a writer (She); or hopelessness. In the first half His (the writers) abode (set design by Jan possibly has supper with a younger friend (He 2), an intellectual like himself. The leitmotif of these encounters is tpnek) is reminiscent of a madmans cell, padded with the strong, compulsive need for self-reflection, the mattresses so that the incumbent doesnt injure himself. But permanent contest with his own existence, its ungraspable it could just as well be isolated from the world in the same complexity and at the same time unending banality. way as an animals den, with everything useful (and often Speaking (and writing) ie, language becomes for the used up) brought in through a narrow tunnel a desk, characters of the play a kind of remaining (maybe the last) a fridge, a couch, a little table and a couple of chairs. It daily bond with reality, with others and with oneself, an drags inside provisions for survival: food, post, and full instrument (frequently clumsy) for authorising reality. The bottles. And out: empty bottles. Enough of what concerns language in this play is not as is usual in the theatre and life. Death is ever present as a slightly ironical object: a little in life a cause of understanding (or misunderstanding) grave on the forestage, to which it is possible quite between the characters: it serves rather for persistent self- ridiculously, emotionally or painfully, refer in exalted designation, observation and analysing of feelings, of passages of conversation but which nevertheless irresistibly sensual perceptions and spiritual movements, for the represents a certain definitive point in the path of human permanent self-definition of the characters. "#Ernst Jandl, Enstrangement / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 Thus all the characters, most strikingly He, express directed by Jan Nebesk / set Jan tpnek / costumes Jana Prekov themselves through a special kind of soliloquy in which >Photos Bohdan Holomek
SHAPING (AND CAPTIVITY) THROUGH THE WORD
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SHAPING (AND CAPTIVITY) THROUGH THE WORD
Ernst Jandl, Enstrangement / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 / directed by Jan Nebesk / set Jan tpnek / costumes Jana Prekov
>Photos Bohdan Holomek
life. His (the writers) lonely existence, filled with banal operations and the inexorable passage of time feels at moments on the border of madness which makes essentially trivial sensations important to the point of being intolerable. Monstrously enlarged, a pigeon cooing on the roof in the early morning, and a childrens scuffle under the window of the house, brings the waking writer experiences on the borders of hallucination and a nightmare. However, in Nebesks production not even they are without the humour of relief, which makes them bearable. At one moment Nebesk even stages something which is latently present the whole time in the language of the characters, some sort of psychic division He watches himself, as he fills the fridge with the shopping he has just brought home. The second half of the production rises to an ironised operatic grandiosity; the walls of the den are covered in gilded foil, the interior, stripped of everyday disorder, is dominated by the desk and the characters have supper together ceremonially dressed in plush evening dress (costumes by Jana Prekov). They are even more reminiscent
of a family of teddybears. The high (operatic) stylisation of language and gesture, madness and death which the characters sense as though it were round every corner, the low how the characters dwell in their everyday life their apparent longing for society, love and sharing and their equally apparent inability to achieve this, create a special mixture of astonishment, emotion and humour which reconciles us with life. We laugh at this production not only because it is entertaining but in self-preservation. We sense very well deep-seated grief of the heart beyond it, that anxiety born from simple human existence. It is strange, but to a naturally thinking and feeling audience, Jandls undramatic play, directed by Jan Nebesk, brings a catharsis as great as that of classical tragedy.
Ernst Jandl: Estrangement, a spoken opera in seven scenes. Translation by Ji Stach, directed by Jan Nebesk, set by Jan tpnek, costumes by Jana Prekov. Theatre on the Balustrades, Prague, premiere 16 October 2004.
Shaping (and Captivity) through the Word
as an Opportunity for an
Jana Patokov
Bernhard
Actor
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BERNHARD AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN ACTOR
The preparation for the Mother and Daughters annual departure from their city flat to the seaside and the arrival at their journeys goal: that is the minimal action or, maybe one should say, parody of the action of the play The Goal Attained (Am Ziel), at whose centre is a perverted relationship: natural family ties are here deformed into a relationship between master and slave. The Mother depicted by the author as a character typically given to monologues, a strong but eccentric individual possessed by her own ego controls, harnesses and bullies the Daughter with a torrent of unending talk. The only way the Daughter can react is by physical gesture and, now and again, a brief verbal response. On top of this, the Writer of Dramatic Works who becomes their guest is or seems to be a mere defenceless witness of this behaviour, as it repeats itself in an unending spiral.
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irector Arnot Goldflam and designer Tom Rusn have set the production in defiance of the authors specific stage directions in an abstract, unreal space, in which a leading role is played by the black, grey and white scale of colour for both set and costumes, and striking lighting which delineates changes in the atmosphere. In the second half the change of acting space is indicated only by a clear blue light and the kind of seat found at the seaside. The furnishings of the interior are also highly simplified: a seat and a small table, a dominant feature upstage consisting of costumes hung high up on hooks, with a pile of grey luggage underneath. In this way the set makes the leitmotifs of the text specific the preparation of the luggage and the ongoing packing of clothes which no one wears either at their starting point or
at the place they travel to. They are the meaningless, regularly repeated rituals through which the Mother consolidates her world, her property acquired once-for-all. The Mother, played by Daniela Kolov (who won the Alfrd Radok Best Actress Award for the role) is faultlessly elegant both in gesture and speech; she brusquely alternates fashionable talk and strict orders with subtle blackmail. Only rarely does she betray something of her deep insecurity and fears. She creates an immediate contrast with the Daughter through her costume, her anxiously cultivated exterior, and the relaxed nature of her self-confident gesture. Vanda Hybnerov creates the role of the Daughter primarily out of movement which, through the fragile awkwardness of her clumsy gestures and attitudes, betrays the inner bondage of the character. As the Writer of
"#Thomas Bernhard, The Goal Attained / Divadlo Komedie, Praha 2004 / directed by Arnot Goldflam / set Tom Rusn / costumes Kateina Blhov
>Photo BauerPower
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Thomas Bernhard, The Goal Attained / Divadlo Komedie, Praha 2004 / directed by Arnot Goldflam / set Tom Rusn / costumes Kateina Blhov
>Photo BauerPower
Dramatic Works, Saa Railov bases his character on the comedy of neurotic gestures and stammering speech, which runs counter to the freshly acquired status of a successful author. Both of these characters, small as far as the text is concerned and created primarily from physical gesture, are superb foils for the central role of the Mother. The greatest asset of the production is the play between these actors, supplemented by the silent role of the servant. Thanks to this we can overlook the somewhat unsuccessful attempt at external stereotypical aural rhythmatising, as well as the silent role ascribed to the Father, which has the effect of a failed gag. Evidence that we are more at home with this author, who originally alienated our theatre professionals by his difficulty, is not only borne out by the
joke with a broken jug (the minimal luggage owned by the Writer of Dramatic Works consisting of a big jug is soon reduced to shards: one of Thomas Bernhards favourite plays was Kleists Broken Jug ). Even though this corresponds to a different theatrical tradition from the world of Bernhards plays, it causes the audience no dismay.
Thomas Bernhard: The Goal Attained . Directed by Arnot Goldflam, music by Michal Nejtek, set by Tom Rusn, costumes by Kateina Blhov. Prague Chamber Theatre (Prask komorn divadlo), Prague, Czech premiere 9 October 2004.
Bernhard as an Opportunity for an Actor
GermanTheatre
Returns to Bohemia
Radmila Hrdinov
Heiner Mller, Hamlet Maschine / Nrodn divadlo Bouda, Praha 2003

directed by Tom Svoboda / set Petr Matsek / costumes Kamila Polvkov
>Photo Hana Smejkalov
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GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA
The co-existence of Czech- and German-language theatre has a long tradition especially in Prague. The very fact that Prague is on the crossroads of Europe, where Czech, German and Jewish culture came together, has contributed to this. In the years of totalitarian dictatorship (1948 1989) this cultural variety was for various reasons subordinated to a unified socialist culture. After November 1989 an awareness of these bonds between the Czech, German and Jewish cultures in the arts, and therefore in the theatre, is returning to Bohemia and Moravia.
he renewal of the influence of German-language theatre clearly began with the organisers of the Prague German-language Theatre Festival. This festival has, every year since 1996, created a regular contact between Prague and German, Austrian and Swiss theatre through approximately a fortnights overview of the most interesting productions in this field (language field that is, not in any way territory). There had of course been productions of plays translated from German on Czech stages before the start of the Prague German-language Theatre Festival, but these had mainly been of the classics: Goethe, Schiller, Brecht those were the authors who appeared most frequently in Bohemian and Moravian theatres. At the turn of the century, it was Goethes Faust which dominated the Czech stage, being produced in three theatres almost simultaneously. Maybe it is a courageous speculation to link the all-embracing intellectual span of Goethes work with the philosophical and existential questions which the end of the millennium necessarily evoked, but more probably it really was not sheer chance. The first of the Faust series came at the end of the 1990s: Part I of Goethes tragedy adapted and directed by Otomar Kreja in the National Theatre (Nrodn divadlo) in Prague (1997). One should evaluate it in the context of Krejas own work rather than in its social context: as the culmination of his lifes work and a desire to present to the Czech public the results of his work over the years which as a director silenced from political reasons under totalitarianism and later from the publics inadequate understanding of the specific work of his company he was forced to develop primarily on foreign stages. Krejas Faust did not remain on its own in the Czech theatre; in 2000 the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc staged Part I of Faust (and a year later Part II). In this production (these productions) by director Peter Gbor one can with a far greater degree of daring make links with the mood at the turn of the millennium. It is a similar case with the Faust directed by Ivan Rajmont in the Klicpera Theatre (Klicperovo divadlo) in Hradec Krlov in 2001. In connection with the staging of Goethes tragedy, we should take into account other Fausts by other authors; above all the 2001 production of Marlowes Dr. Faustus by Michal Doekal, using as
Werner Schwab, Faust, My Chest, My Helmet / Nrodn divadlo Bouda, Praha 2003 / directed by Thomas Zielinski / set Petr Matsek costumes Jaroslav Bnisch >Photo Hana Smejkalov
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"Friedrich Schiller, Kabale und Liebe / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2005 directed by Jan Nebesk / set design Jan tpnek / costumes Jana Prekov
#""Heiner Mller, Hamlet Maschine / Nrodn divadlo Bouda, Praha 2003 / directed by Tom Svoboda / set Petr Matsek / costumes Kamila Polvkov >Photo Hana Smejkalov
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a summer venue the subterranean hall of Vyehrads Gorlice. The production enjoyed the exceptional interest of audiences as well as praise from the specialist theatre public and was still being repeated last year. The same year saw a summer open air Faust by the Prague puppet theatre Minor, created by the director Ji Nekvasil on the basis of the old puppet faustiades from the time of the Czech National Revival a classic marionette spectacle in which the elements of design and live music play a major role. At the same time there were productions of contemporary Fausts by the dramatists Werner Schwab and Mark Ravenhill. Schwabs Faust, My Chest, My Helmet was staged by the drama company of the National Theatre in Prague as a part of its first project Bouda [Hut: a reference to the first purpose-built theatre for plays in Czech in the early 19th century] in June 2003 in a provisional (summer) construction on the square behind the Theatre of the Estates. Schwabs Faust here formed part of a contemporary trilogy which included Heiner Mllers Hamlet and Sarah
#$Friedrich Schiller, Kabale und Liebe / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2005 directed by Jan Nebesk / set design Jan tpnek / costumes Jana Prekov
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"%$Bertolt Brecht, The Good Woman of Setzuan / Nrodn divadlo,

Praha 2003 / directed by Martin ivk / set Tom Ciller costumes Marija Havran >Photo Hana Smejkalov
Canes Phaedra. Ravenhills Faust (Faust is Dead) was successfully staged by Ji Pokorn in the HaTheatre [HaDivadlo] in November 2000. These however are productions already linked with the appearance on the Czech stage of new, contemporary dramatists, influenced (strongly) by the dramaturgy and staging of productions in the Prague German-language Theatre Festival. Shown in the context of the festival was, in November 1999 Goethes Faust (Part I) performed by the company of the Schauspiel Frankfurt. To get the complete picture of the classic German dramatists on the Czech stage at the turn of the millennium, one should add from the previously mentioned trio of authors productions by Friedrich Schiller, especially Mary Stuart (by a number of theatres), Kabale und Liebe and Don Carlos, which were perhaps occasioned more by felicitous casting opportunities than by a burning interest in German classical drama. A similar case arose with Bertolt Brecht, with one production closely following another of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (the Prague Chamber Theatre [Prask komorn divadlo] in the Comedy Theatre [Divadlo Komedie] in December 2002 and the Brno Theatre Goose on a String [Divadlo Husa na provzku] in February 2003) in a not altogether successful handling which was evidence more of an attempt to find themes in the text which no contemporary domestic dramatist has been able to pin down more than of any interest in Brecht, let alone his plays. Elsewhere we were able to see Puntilla and The Good
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Woman of Setzuan, clearly chosen more from the point of view of casting than from dramaturgical necessity. The Prague Chamber Theatre, linked with the director Duan Pazek, demonstrates more consistent attention to German-language drama. Pazek, who grew up in a German environment, has focussed his interest on this field, and especially on 20th century texts. Since the end of the 1990s the work of this company, with the foresight given by Pazeks orientation in German drama, has brought contemporary authors to the Czech stage, above all Werner Schwab, ( The Presidents [Die Prsidentinnen], My Dog Nozzle [Mein Hundemund], People Annihilation or, My Liver is Senseless [Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos]). However, the dramaturgy also returned to the works of Bertolt Brecht (the already mentioned productions of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Baal). The Prague Chamber Theatre, originally an independent company without its own stage, later transferred itself from its refuge in the Theatre on the Balustrades [Divadlo Na zbradl] to the Comedy Theatre whose dramaturgy markedly oriented itself toward the German-language drama and authors in harmony with it. They are presented not only in the form of full productions, but in frequent staged readings which bring topical texts and authors as yet unknown in the Czech Republic. The Comedy Theatre has thus in recent years become a stage oriented primarily to German and German-language drama naturally, in Czech translations and for Czech audiences. The Prague German-language Theatre Festival has since 1996 aroused not only a heightened interest in authors from German-speaking countries, but through these means helped to make us aware of other contemporary dramatic and staging trends, especially the wave of what is known as the cool drama, which first reached Prague in Germanlanguage productions. Some authors appeared in the Czech Republic for the first time at this festival: Marius von Mayenburg, Wolfgang Borchert, Thomas Brussig, Fritz Kater alias Armin Petras, Elfriede Jelinek, Urs Widmer, Franz Wittenbrink. The dramaturgy of the Czech theatres
""Werner Schwab, The Presidents

Prask komorn divadlo, Praha 1997, 2002 / directed by Duan Pazek / set design Jan tpnek >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
"Werner Schwab, People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless / Prask

komorn divadlo, Praha 1999 / directed by David Pazek / set design Jan tpnek costumes Andrea Krlov
%Friedrich Schiller, The Bandits

Prask komorn divadlo, Praha 2001 directed by Duan Pazek / set design Jan tpnek / costumes Andrea Krlov
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immediately grasped the texts of these authors and to a fertile degree showed them in Czech translation. This was how titles such as Widmers Top Dogs and Mayenburgs Face in the Fire appeared on Czech stages, whilst the National Theatre in Prague produced its own specific version of Wittenbrinks Secretaries under the title Czech Secretaries. Translations of works by Thomas Bernhard began to appear on Czech stages in a far greater measure (more than ten plays in the last ten years!), and in the last two seasons plays by Elfriede Jelinek. A practical motivation has played a role in this: the dramaturges of the Prague German-language Theatre Festival announced the MAX Award for the best Czech production of a play by a German-language author written after 1900. The Award is financially ensured and the winning production automatically becomes a part of the festival programme. The first MAX Award was won in 2002 with a production of Thomas Bernhards Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man (Minetti) directed by Otomar Kreja at the National Theatre in Prague. The following year it was Top Dogs by the Brno HaTheatre, directed by Ji Pokorn and last year a production of Roland Schimmelpfennigs Arabian Night directed by Martin Tich at the F. X. alda Theatre (Divadlo F. X. aldy) in Liberec. The winner of the MAX Award is
"Thomas Bernhard, Old Masters / Divadlo Komedie, Praha 2001
directed by Duan Pazek / set design Jan tpnek >Photo BauerPower
%"Elfriede Jelinekov, Klara S. / Divadlo Komedie, Praha 2005

directed by David Jaab / set design D&D / costumes Kamila Polvkov
>Photo BauerPower
%Roland Schimmelpfennig, Arabian Night / Divadlo F. X. aldy, Liberec 2004 / directed by Martin Tich set design Markta Oslzl-Sldekov >Photo archives of theatre
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Fritz Kater, Zeit zu lieben, Zeit zu sterben / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 / directed by Ji Pokorn / set design Petr B. Novk
costumes Kateina tefkov >Photo Martin pelda
chosen by a five-member jury of critics and the number of productions entering for the Award has significantly increased every year. It is not only the dramaturgy which is enlivening the Czech stage, but also the influence of personalities whose productions have been seen in the Prague Germanlanguage Theatre Festival in the course of the decade. They come from different generations on the one hand the internationally-known Peter Zadek, George Tabori and Claus Peymann; on the other, representatives of the younger generation who are already today considered leading personalities of the European theatre Christopher Marthaler, Thomas Ostermeier, Michal Thalheimer, Luk Perceval. Their work has significantly influenced the
younger middle generation of directors in the Czech Republic and their creative approaches can be traced in a number of domestic productions, whether by Michal Doekal, Ji Pokorn, Duan Pazek or by the new generation of rising directors and stage designers. The relationship of Czech and German-language theatre has indeed in the last few years risen to a new, qualitatively more mature phase, especially thanks to the contacts enabled by the Prague German-language Theatre Festival, as well as to the more open dramaturgy of Czech theatres and the fact that a number of Czech directors and artistic directors have become aware that Czech theatre has its place in European theatre, with which it is necessary and advantageous to maintain a lively contact.
German Theatre Returns to Bohemia
Viktor Kronbauer
Photographs the Theatre
William Shakespeare, Tom Lanoye, Schlachten! / Deutschestheater Hamburg / directed by Luk Perceval >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
William Shakespeare, Tom Lanoye, Schlachten! / Deutschestheater Hamburg / directed by Luk Perceval >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
William Shakespeare, Macbeth / Budapesti Kamarasznhz / directed by Rbert Alfldi / set design Kentaur / costumes Andrea Bertha >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
William Shakespeare, Macbeth / Budapesti Kamarasznhz / directed by Rbert Alfldi / set design Kentaur / costumes Andrea Bertha >Photo Viktor Kronbauer
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VIKTOR KRONBAUER PHOTOGRAPHS THE THEATRE
Viktor Kronbauer
heatre photography is a specific discipline which established itself in Czech culture primarily thanks to the work and example of Jaromr Svoboda, Josef Koudelka and Jaroslav Krej. At present there are few artists in the Czech Republic so powerfully focused on this branch of the photographers art as Viktor Kronbauer. In his inimitable manner he has for several decades been photographing theatre performances, backstage at the theatre, and the faces of the theatre actors, directors, dramatists His work represents an independent approach to theatrical photography which sees the photographer as a member of the creative team and the photograph not only as a reflection but, in its way, an interpretation of the performance. Kronbauer (b. 1949) graduated in mechanical engineering, simultaneously devoting himself to photography. He considers himself a pupil of Jaroslav Krej. He has been photographing for the Theatre Institute in Prague since
1985 out of this cooperation a number of original theatrical reflections have originated. I made an inventory and I discovered the terrible number, I use a thousand films a year, a thousand spools of film, a thousand...! Kilometres of film that go through the camera and a lot of sweat-stained T-shirts, says Viktor Kronbauer. In the theatre I always give myself the task to illustrate the whole production in one picture. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes I dont. But why not. When one is excellent, that is enough. He has photographed productions by Miroslav Machek, Jan Grossman and Lubo Pistorius, and regularly works with the directors David Radok and Vladimr Morvek. He also teaches, regularly creates the cover portraits for Divadeln noviny (Theatre News) and works for the review Czech Theatre. This year Kronbauer won two important prizes at the Triennial at Nov Sad in Serbia a prestigious competition for theatre photographers. He was presented with the Gold Medal by the international jury for his collection of photographs Lights (Svtla) from the production Schlachten! by the German director Luk Perceval. The photographs were taken in 2000 when the Deutsches Schauspielhaus of Hamburg appeared at the Prague Festival of Germanlanguage Theatre. Kronbauer also received a medal from the International Federation of Art Photographers (FIAP) for a collection of photographs of a production of Macbeth by the Hungarian director Rbert Alfldi, presented at the international festival Theatre (Divadlo) in Pilsen. In 2002 he won the Silver Medal at the Triennial in Nov Sad (see Czech Theatre 18 / 2002). In 2002 the Theatre Institute published a CDROM with a retrospective collection of Kronbauers photographic work called 100 Theatre Photographs. Mr
Viktor Kronbauer, Photographs the Theatre
Ji Heman:
Falling Asleep in the Sea

"Dementia praecox / Divadlo Inspirace, Praha 2001 / music Michal Nejtek / libretto Ji Heman conducted by Marko Ivanovi / set design Pavel Svoboda / costumes Tereza mov >Photo archives
Ondej Hun
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SLEEP
The nineteenth century and the ever contemporary opera mainstream that has come out of it leans primarily toward a principle of a music dramatization. Toward a principle that makes theatre from music - more accurately stated drama. Ji Hemans opera direction does not make theatre out of music, but rather makes music out of theatre. What is essential is not the plot, but the space in which everything is performed the rhythm, the dynamics, the colour, the motifs. Furthermore, his productions are not simply built on the accumulation of means of expression, but on their penetration or even their inseparability. The tones shine within the space, and light resonates within it.
i Heman was born in 1975. He studied voice at the conservatory in Plze, and for some time sang in the chorus of the Plze Opera. In 2003, he completed his studies of opera direction at the AMU Music Academy in Prague. Until now, he has created five productions. At the Disk Theatre in Prague in 2000, he staged The Northern Nights (Severn noci), a production composed of the song cycles of Robert Schumann and two Czech modern composers Petr Eben and Jaroslav Kika. A year later, he presented the project New Opera Two Times (Dvakrt nov opera) at the Inspiration Theatre (Divadlo Inspirace), the stage atelier of AMU. This project consisted of two opera pieces by two authors who belong to the youngest generation of composers: Michal Nejtek (Dementia praecox based on Witkiewiczs play The Madman and the Nun) and Marko Ivanovic (The Maiden and Death based on the short story by Ray Bradbury). This project later received an award at the Opera 2003 Festival in Prague. In 2001, Petr Kofro, at that time head of the opera in Plze, invited Ji Heman to be the guest director of the production of Camille Saint-Sanses Samson and Delilah. That production premiered in January 2002 and was one of the most remarkable productions that had originated on the Czech opera stages during recent years. Two years later, Heman premiered another of his opera directions in Plze: Wagners The Flying Dutchman. Both of these productions became a part of the programme of the International Festival THEATRE in Plze. The Flying Dutchman was
stupendously received remarkably first of all by nonopera critics and received the Divadeln noviny Award for Best Direction, and was also nominated for the Alfrd Radok Award. Hemans most recently completed work is the stage madrigal Lamenti (text by Francesco Micieli with music by Michal Nejtek and excerpts from Monteverdis Ariannas Lament). The new piece was presented at the Universal Space NoD in November 2004 during the German Language Theatre Festival in Prague. Lamenti is also the first independent project of the in spe association, founded by Heman, whose aim is to produce and promote independent theatre creation. The theatre of Ji Heman is attractive by its two strengths. The strength of abstraction and the strength of imagery. For his theatrical interpretation, it is therefore absolutely fundamental to take into consideration the issue of space, the coordinates that should separate the outer from the inner, the random from the structured, the expanded from the concentrated, and the profane from the sacred. The space that Heman creates with his scenographer Pavel Svoboda has a character of rituals. It is a space that is precisely dissected, cleaned, emptied, and filled with nothing but itself. At the same time, within its own boundaries, it is a window to the universe. In Samson and Delilah, it was an elevated square, divided by light in the centre and on the perimeter a cyclic journey, in every corner a sharp turn, and nonetheless infinite, always turning back. Above the square, there was
"Dementia praecox / Divadlo Inspirace, Praha 2001 / music Michal Nejtek / libretto Ji Heman / conducted by Marko Ivanovi set design Pavel Svoboda / costumes Tereza mov >Photo archives
JI HEMAN: FALLING ASLEEP IN THE SEA
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a framed construction of lights and between them there was a tight vertical white string directed toward the unknown. This cyclic principle was repeated in Lamenti a square, a narrow path around the perimeter, a clearly defined core in the shape of a sand dune, and all of this changed in the unbroken, undivided surface, spreading out in all directions toward infinity. In The Flying Dutchman, we found a space in the form of an abstract beach, receding into the depths of the stage and divided in half by a narrow, precisely defined path through the sand - again leading from infinity to infinity. Consequently, a geometrically pure space composed of squares, circles, straight lines, line segments, horizontal, vertical, and perspectives. The same visual simplicity and meditative minimalism are characteristic of everything that enters the space. The
actors performance is abstracted on the resulting movement - precisely defined, synchronized, slowed down or accelerated, always connected with the space. The costumes become more neutral from production to production and have evolved into ritual robes, beach apparel or merely something that is the most common, the most abstract indication of male and female characters, free, light, connected to the space by its colour and permitting the actors to make immediate contact with it the actors (if you prefer vocalists) are always barefoot in Hemans productions. The stage props should not heighten the credibility of the actors performance; they are a part of his body and even a part of the space - a living object of ritual. A stick, a ball, a beach chair, a sheet of paper these are all austere geometric spaces. Light has matter, shape, colour
Camille Saint-Sans, Samson and Delilah / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2002 / libretto Ferdinand Lemaire / conducted by Ji trunc set design Pavel Svoboda / costumes Lenka Polkov >Photo archives
and dynamics. It is a part of the space, and creates the space itself. In its own abstract orderliness, Hemans stage language is truly more musical than dramatic. In spite of all abstractions and purist morphology, this space is not a sterile, decorative vacuum. Quite the opposite. It is a very physical gesture. Material and figurative. The entire powerful attraction - to the accuracy of the gesture, the step, the movement, to the order of light and colour, to the clarity of the lines - is not a path to an artificial, neological world. But on the contrary it is an attempt to remove all suffixes of beauty and reveal hidden images behind those images that are illustrated, to penetrate to the actual roots of the pictures strength (Gaston Bachelard: Water and Dreams). Hemans space (including everything that enters into it and shapes it) is not merely design, but also a physical
model. To Heman, the fundamental geometry of the space is a picture of infinity, eternity, an interspersing of the material and spiritual dimensions. The abstract geometry of this space is created together and accentuated by real matter - water like an aerosol descends from the heavens onto the stage floor in Samson and Delilah, sand as an endless trail in The Flying Dutchman, or as a boundary, a dune, and finally, an infinite, eternal, beautifully monotonous surface in Lamenti. Similarly, this matter also includes sounds and noises, that outside of the musical structure and its direct components, penetrate more and more into Hemans productions. However, not like a realistic quotation they are somehow always mystic or - one could perhaps say - deformed. The drums in Samson and Delilah, the ocean surf or the uneasy breath and distant shriek of the seagulls in The Flying
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JI HEMAN: FALLING ASLEEP IN THE SEA
Dutchman. Lamenti contains sound and noise matter in the form of a sampler. And all other material, physical and real objects, that enter into the hyperspace of the production, continuously move along the borders of the material and spiritual, small and large, objective and subjective. Real white canvas beach chairs in The Flying Dutchman are on the one hand beach chairs, just like the stage is on the one hand a beach on the coast of the sea. But all at once the chairs transform into sails, into ocean waves, into a white made-up bed, into a miniature holy beach, into contours of straight lines or circles, then return to their original forms of ordinary chairs. A stick in Lamenti is a weapon, a hurdle, a yoke, a vertical or a horizontal line. The human body is also the point of intersection of the abstract and the concrete. The body is a dramatic character, an object (the male chorus is a sea vessel in The Flying Dutchman ), a mere voice (Montverdes Lasciatemi morire in Lamenti ), a mere anonymous living matter absorbed by the space (a collapsing row of bodies in Samson and Delilah) or a body absorbing the space (the duet of Senta and the Dutchman on waves of blue light, Delilah lays in the centre of the stage and life-giving water falls into her lap from above). The theatre of Ji Heman is figurative, showing pictures that are hidden in more and more perspectives of the same things. It is a theatre in which everything is material and concrete. Yet at the same time, everything is symbolic and abstract. In Hemans productions and even in those that have been produced in the traditional disposition of an opera stage are admitted the physical sources of the light; the space is naked, revealed, raw. So, the theatrical illusions are realistic because the context of reality itself is completely real. The illusion here does not come into being as usual or out of force of habit, but as a conscious step forward from the real reality in belief that this magical step forward conquers and takes over not denies everything that is real. If Hemans theatre is abstract, figurative and magic, it is not merely the result of his visual style. His productions contain very similar characteristics in terms of their visual elements, as well as their rhythm and tempo. However Heman does not mechanically transfer this style from one of his subjects to another. First and foremost, his productions have common themes and similar dramaturgical characteristics. Even though there is a variety and wide range of materials, forms or external production elements. Poet and madman Walpurg is isolated in a psychiatric clinic, establishes an intimate relationship with a nun, kills his physician out of jealousy, and finally frees himself by committing suicide and meets his own lover as well as his own sacrifice on the shores of the sea (Dementia praecox). An old woman listens to deaths passionate calling that appears in the form of a young lover (The Maiden and Death). A man and woman from two enemy nations fall in love. The woman however betrays the man, and he takes revenge everyone dies (Samson and Delilah). A man
searches for true love, even though he doubts that it exists, and does not believe in it. A woman commits the greatest sacrifice for him and in death offers him redemption from the earths suffering (The Flying Dutchman). A son interviews his dying mother ( Lamenti ). Life and death. Life as coherence and even a dialectic of masculinity and femininity. Death as a space with no boundaries, with no dialectic, timeless. Man and woman - a continuously repeated theme of these productions are not psychologically embracing, but are like natural, energetic, mythical principles. Ji Hemans comments on Samson and Delilah: A return to the beginning. A return to a unity. A union of heaven and earth. A union of man and woman. A union of strength. Rebirth. A collision of two faiths. A collision of two times. A collision between a man and a woman. In todays world, there is no original unity nor reconciliation. Disunity, discontentment, will, pride Comments on The Flying Dutchman: Sand and sea. Human being. The poison of doubts, emotion and prejudice. An inner storm. Traces of loneliness. Searching for ways. Contrary to this, death is the way to the unity, undifferentiation, synergy, commitment. The motto in Lamenti: Ich mchte im Meer einschlafen. Neben meinem Leben. I would like to fall asleep in the sea, beside my own life. A sea, like a picture of the original unity, like an infinity in which man melts away. A sandy beach like a holy icon of unbroken perfection, that only one person is able to corrupt, one living being words similar to these begin the novel of Allesandro Baricco Ocean Sea, one of Hemans sources of inspiration. The beach already appeared in Dementia praecox, but there in the context of music and a situation of irony and grotesque. Water and earth also have their own roles in Samson and Delilah, where a stream of water droplets connect Heaven and Earth with shackles of the original unity. On the back of the stage, a raked turntable rotates the model of sand dunes, somewhat like a promised desert, an unattainable icon of perfection. This fascination with water and earth, sea and sand, continues to appear in Hemans productions as a more and more concentrated element. The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti take place directly on their boundaries that to quote Allessandro Baricco again no one can ever clearly define. Last January, Ji Heman returned from India. The catastrophe of the sea did not reach him at that time, he was far away from the shores. One could perceive this as symbolic his Flying Dutchman refers to a catastrophe of the sea, an eternal annihilation and the entire production begins with waves breaking, explosions of wind, images of annihilation. Ji remains quiet, and meditates - whether or not he is in the Orient. He still slowly performs somersaults on the shores of the ocean, even when he is no longer there. He admires the compact universality more than the restless multiplicity, the silent order more than the noisy randomness, the sacred more than the profane, the abstract more than the concrete, and the remote sound more than the articulate word.
A Maritime Double
The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti.
Ondej Hun
Lamenti / Universln prostor NOD, Praha 2004 / music Michal Nejtek, Claudio Monteverdi / libretto Francesco Micieli, Ottavio Rinuccini
conducted by Michal Nejtek / set design Ji Heman, Pavel Svoboda / costumes Lenka Polkov >Photo Pavel Svoboda
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A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.
The myth of Wagners Flying Dutchman has many meanings. It is open to theological and psychoanalytical interpretation. It is a story full of emotion: impassioned longings for death as the only possible definitive and unqualified fulfilment of love. One of the central themes of Wagners later oeuvre, influenced by Schopenhauers philosophy and Buddhism, is already evident in this early work. There exists only one love the love of God; everything else is karma, fate. In the Flying Dutchman the theme of a man condemned to life or a dream state (characters appear in it or tell about it) returns constantly. The narrative in Wagners opera seems to alternate constantly between the real world and the world of dream, sleep, death... This is the aspect also emphasised in Ji Hemans production.
he stage is open long before the start of the performance. A light-coloured floor with a strip of sand running from front to the back of the stage. At front right and rear left there hang large white ground-glass screens. Soon the space starts to pulsate; blue light travels from one half of the space to the other, roaring, rearing up and falling like sea waves. Gradually all the characters and the chorus come onto the beach as if in a trance; they slowly unfold deckchairs and lie down on them to sleep. Their bodies continue to undulate slowly, however, as if in the power of invisible surf. The sleeping Dutchman arrives from the depths of the front understage. There is the sound of enormous waves breaking, an explosion, following which the figures on the deckchairs are scattered around and strangely contorted. The Dutchman stands up and slowly walks towards the back of the stage. Wagners riveting overture starts to play, and during it Heman once more brings this entire arsenal into play. The mens chorus stand on a revolving stage, the folded deckchairs held aloft, in the stylized shape of a ship setting course; the women kneel behind a row of white deckchairs, then place them on the
costumes Lenka Polkov >Photos Pavel Svoboda
ground and lie down on them, the first intimation of Sentas sacrifice. They all gradually leave the beach, while Senta is borne downwards on the front trap. The stage is once more empty. The opening tableau contains in concise form all the ideas and staging developed later in the production. The persons sleeping and dreaming on the deckchairs yearn for immobility and oblivion, but they wake up again and again, return to life and seek a direction. The characters move around the rectangular ground plan of the deckchairs. The revolving stage, crossed by the strip of sand is reminiscent of a compass with its needle. The helmsman or the Dutchmans crew similarly extend their arms to the four points of the compass All entries and exits follow these angles: along the path, alongside it, straight into the gateways or vertically into the front trap. The individual settings are arranged in a strictly geometrical fashion. Dalands seamen lie down to sleep on the deckchairs in rows alongside the sand path. The chorus of spinners is arranged in a circle, in the middle of which Senta relates her ballad about the wandering sailor. In the third act the chorus is
Richard Wagner, Flying Dutchman / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2004 / libretto Richard Wagner / conducted by Petr Kofro / set design Pavel Svoboda
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lined up on both sides alongside the sand path. Between them is the Dutchmans ship several men in dark costumes sleeping on deckchairs. The duets between Daland and the Dutchman, Erik and Senta, and Senta and the Dutchman are sung face on or in profile, as if the characters look at each other only when they come face to face on the same line; otherwise they face out into emptiness as they call to mind memories, cries, dreams The characters enter the situation from a dream and then fall back into it. When the seamen sail away at the end of the first act their bodies form the hull of the ship, while the deckchairs represent the sails or oars. Daland and the Dutchman fall asleep on their deckchairs and are carried below stage on the trap, re-surfacing during Eriks dream, in which Erik flees in terror from the raving Senta and once more falls asleep on a deckchair on the rear stage... The repetition or permutation of themes is also the basis of the characters contact with scenographic objects or props. The deckchairs with their variable significance have already been mentioned. The sand path also appears in
glass screens suspended in the air represent not only calm purity, but also fragility and instability. And once more they are set off-balance by human intervention and transformed into dangerous blades flying through space: when the Dutchman, tells his past to Daland, by Senta and Mary during the ballad relating the Dutchmans fate, or by the Dutchmans crew which, in the finale, set five smaller screens swinging as Senta drowns in their midst. The director employs variations of the same setting for various characters in different situations the central themes of the production are passed from character to character, from the individual to all participants and vice versa. Naturally each of the singers differs in terms of their type and to a certain extent they necessarily deviate from the strictly unified stylization and also to ensure a high standard of singing which, particularly in Wagners operas, with their great demands on the singers requires a certain degree of physical ease and freedom. The direction respects this, but also deliberately does not develop it. Each character is sustained by a specific basic
Richard Wagner, Flying Dutchman / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2004 / libretto Richard Wagner / conducted by Petr Kofro / set design Pavel Svoboda costumes Lenka Polkov >Photos Pavel Svoboda
additional contexts. At the beginning of the opera, Daland holds sand in his hands while he sings about Sandwike Bay, where his ship was blown from its home port by a storm. Sand in the hands of the Dutchman is an image of the ruin of the shifting world, which he summons desperately in his aria. In the hands of the sailors and in fierce white light it becomes a vision of the enormous wealth, which the Dutchman offers Daland in return for his daughter Senta. In her duet with the Dutchman, Senta smoothes the sand denoting a return to an untrammelled holy icon, as she projects her calm thoughts onto him. The white ground-
emotion the Dutchman by fatalistic suspicion, Senta by calm and determination, Erik by jealousy, Daland by a good-humoured craving for material wealth. Taking the production overall, however, the directors central themes are more arresting than the definition of the characters. Our attention is actually focused on just one character, unified by the repeated arrangements and the symbolic, austere gestures: spinning arms, arms pretending to pull sail ropes and particularly the repeated gesture of clenched fingers grasping a thread and pulling it from space towards the heart.
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Richard Wagner, Flying Dutchman / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2004

libretto Richard Wagner / conducted by Petr Kofro / set design Pavel Svoboda / costumes Lenka Polkov >Photos Pavel Svoboda
fascinating. Wagners opera stretched the musical capacity of Plzes regional opera company to its limits. Even though, because of their hectic routine, repertory companies are not the ideal medium for such distinctive projects that require maximum precision and concentration, this production has rightly received critical acclaim on several occasions. The staging of Lamenti is in many respects the exact opposite of the Flying Dutchman. Ji Heman personally initiated the project when he approached the Swiss writer Francesco Micieli and the Czech composer Michal Nejtek with a specific dramaturgical concept, and he subsequently collaborated with them on its creation. For his production he opted for the intimate but austere space of the NoD experimental space in Prague. Nejtek composed a work that lasts just over an hour, for only five voices, seven instruments and sampler. The production team had eleven members. The form Ji Heman chose was a stage madrigal, whose outwardly static character, simplicity, introspectiveness and inward emotionality have always attracted him. The Lamenti, whose title is inspired by Monteverdis composition Lamento di Ariann (Ariadnes Lament), is a further specific step by Heman in the sphere of musical theatre. The text, divided into thirty-two short sections laments is a kind of dialogue, in which one speaker is the son of the dying mother, while the other is silence. Hemans meditation on the boundary between life and death, and between land and sea, corresponds fully to the structure of the staged composition. Francesco Micielis autobiographical and extremely lyrical text evokes memories of childhood, primeval unity and integrity, and comprises scenes of his being uprooted from home and his disillusionment with his mother, who emigrates in search of
The production reaches its crux using the chosen stage language: the closing scene of popular rejoicing on the shore is conceived as a courtroom scene. On one side, along the strip of sand, is the male world, characterized by impetuous movements, while on the other side is the female world of calm and reconciliation. The Dutchmans crew are the members of the bench, in the forefront are the prosecutors Erik and the Dutchman, in the middle, Senta as the defendant. Her leap into the sea is not conceived as a heroic act or a manifestation of insanity, but as a calm exit from this world full of contradictions and doubt. The wildly swinging ground-glass screens, among which Senta falls to the ground, start to move upwards at her majestic gesture and as Senta slowly exits on her endless journey, the chorus disappear through the portals, Erik descends on the front trap and the Dutchman is left alone on a deckchair on the beach. The concentrated ideas underlying Ji Hemans direction, with its formal purity, economy and consistency, are
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a better future, but ends up losing herself altogether and even being isolated from her son. And again it returns to the bed on which his mother dies. There is no story, no situations, no reversals of fortune and yet it combines emotion, tenderness, compassion, naturalism, remorse and irony: scenes full of associations, intermingling themes and time planes.. Whence that joy / Shortly before / This gratitude / For creation / Your sunny singing / To the blue flower / That you give to invisible youths / They want to take you with them / But they would have to break into heaven with a stone. All those bags of feed / On your shoulder / Like the plunder of grief / You dreamed of something else / When you dragged through the stations / The sun and clouds. Michal Nejtek shares the text between a baritone and four womens voices. The sons utterances into space seem to be returned by the female quartet billowy, subtle and now weightless. This constant echo, or the sounds gradual dying away in space, are the only answers that the dying mother is capable of giving her son. The music flows in minimalist waves, in the tones of the chorus, melody lines and rhythmical declamation, as well as in childlike playfulness and harsher passages of rock music. There is completely silent meditation, but also timid questions, sudden cries, irruptions, blows, explosions, storm and industrial noises. Ji Heman had available material typical for his abstract vision full of material images. This is much more distinctive material than in earlier productions. The dark grey square of the floor, in the middle of which is placed diagonally a dune of white sand and in its corners little drums with cords pointing upwards. Behind the square
is a triangular space consisting of battered walls, in the middle of one of which is a steel door. The performance opens with a ritual of purifying the space far more ordinary and down-to-earth than it was at the beginning of Samson and Delilah. The female figures, in short grey dresses walk through the space with white paper oblongs as if shifting aside everything disturbing the peace. White sheets float slowly in the wind until they fall to the ground and once more become a holy icon. A man in grey t-shirt and trousers measures the perimeter of the square with short steps and places a stone at each corner of it. His walk changes to a run and he begins to spin violently before leaping across the sand barrier with a cry and landing in the middle of the square. The sound of Monteverdis Lasciatemi morire... (let me die), is heard from somewhere. A woman with a white stick over her shoulder and holding a white ball to her stomach walks through the sand dune a mother pilgrim, a mother warrior. The Lasciatemi morire is heard for a second time in an arrangement for five parts. In five narrow beams of light the characters stand with their faces to the wall. The first meditative plane of Nejteks composition is tied together. The tableaux in which Heman places his models in space no longer have any of the illustrativeness that was still apparent in the Flying Dutchman. The visual images and movement permeate the text and do not comment on each other. Their abstract link is the music. Just as the text and the music both comprise fragments of memories and returns, so also Hemans scenes are discontinuous, without action, separated from each other, and yet each flows on spatially from the previous one and they all move towards
#$Lamenti / Universln prostor NOD, Praha 2004 / music Michal Nejtek, Claudio Monteverdi / libretto Francesco Micieli, Ottavio Rinuccini conducted by Michal Nejtek / set design Ji Heman, Pavel Svoboda / costumes Lenka Polkov >Photos Pavel Svoboda
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a common crux. The figures move through space on precisely defined courses as if from memory, exchanging places, objects and gestures. A detail of a human arm in the light. A female figure seated like a statue, her hand open in front of her, rises, covers her ears against the din and dashes to and fro about the space. A figure lying in the darkness. A figure lying in a rectangle of light. A figure moving backwards around the square shape. Eight empty hands in the light. A staff held by the mother like a lance is taken over by her son, who places it behind his neck onto his shoulders, so that the staff becomes a yoke or shackle. The son frees himself from the shackle, carries the rod to the centre of the square and thrusts it into the sand. Then it returns to his shoulders, this time with metal bowls hanging at either end; the male figures starts to rotate with this burden to the sound of delirious dance music. The white ball, which the mother brought in at the beginning with extreme care, is gradually passed from one to another like a beach ball that eventually remains lying all alone in the sand. At the end, paper rectangles lying on the floor a motif similar to the four screens and the white deckchairs in the Flying Dutchman are carried along in a formal procession, suspended from small spars in each corner and gradually drawn upwards, surrendered to the space. The theme of a holy icon, inspired by Bariccos text and already developed in the Dutchman, is also a central theme here. The triangular area beyond the square is a tainted space, an image of human misery. The square, on the contrary, is transformed into an image of that primeval unity mentioned earlier. In the course of the performance the figures flatten the sand dune and bring here in sacrificial bowls further sand lying along the battered walls, creating a flat surface of white sand on which the figure representing the mother lies down at the end, her blue dress merging with the blue-lit sand to form an image of the calm surface of the sea. Three slow-motion video sequences, inserted again with an eye for geometrical arrangement at the beginning, the middle and the end, are projected onto a white rectangular ground-glass screens suspended in space. In the first sequence the figure representing the son stands knee-deep in surf, raising a white ball above his head. In the second, during which the sound of a metal rod being struck like a death knell can be heard from the stage, the son wades through the sea with the yoke on his shoulders (the rod with the ceremonial bowls). In the third video, a figure runs along the shoreline and disappears in the distance; its footprints in the sand then gradually disappear. Like a stranger I came, / Like a stranger I leave once moreare among the final lines of poetry in this production by Ji Heman, friend of the sea.
Lamenti / Universln prostor NOD, Praha 2004 / music Michal Nejtek, Claudio Monteverdi / libretto Francesco Micieli, Ottavio Rinuccini conducted by Michal Nejtek / set design Ji Heman, Pavel Svoboda costumes Lenka Polkov >Photo Pavel Svoboda
Productions by Ji Heman: Northern lights (Severn noci), a staging of song cycles (Robert Schumann: A Womans Love and Life, Petr Eben: Unkind Songs, Jaroslav Kika: Northern Nights), sets: Pavel Svoboda; costumes: Julie ebkov. Premiere: 28 June 2000, Theatre Disk (Divadlo Disk), Prague. New Opera Two Times (Dvakrt nov opera) Dementia praecox, music: Michal Nejtek; libretto: Ji Heman; conductor: Marko Ivanovi; sets: Pavel Svoboda; costumes: Tereza mov Death and Maiden (Dvka a smrt), music: Marko Ivanovi, libretto: Anna Doubkov, conductor: Jakub Hra, sets: Pavel Svoboda, costumes: Julie ebkov. Premiere: 15 November 2001, Theatre Inspiration (Divadlo Inspirace), Prague. Camille Saint-Sa ns: Samson and Delilah libretto: Ferdinand Lemaire; conductor: Ji trunc; sets: Pavel Svoboda; costumes: Lenka Polkov. Premiere: 26 January 2002, J. K. Tyl Theatre (Divadlo J. K. Tyla), Plze. Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman libretto: Richard Wagner; conductor: Petr Kofro; sets: Pavel Svoboda; costumes: Lenka Polkov. Premiere: 24 January 2004, J. K. Tyl Theatre (Divadlo J. K. Tyla), Plze. Lamenti music Michal Nejtek, Claudio Monteverdi, libretto: Francesco Micieli, Ottavio Rinuccini, conductor: Michal Nejtek, sets: Ji Heman, Pavel Svoboda, costumes: Lenka Polkov. Premiere: 5 November 2004, Universal Space NOD (Universln prostor NoD), Prague.
A Maritime Double. The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti.
How they Ballet in Bohemia

What are the most striking marks of contemporary Czech ballet? How do the permanent ballet companies work? What is their dramaturgy? Striking personalities and their work
Roman Vaek
Ways 03 / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2003 / choreography and set design Petr Zuska / music Arvo Prt >Photo Roman Sejkot
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HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA
Succession of generations
(Prague, Brno, Pilsen, Prague Chamber Ballet)
The largest ballet company in Prague and the largest company in Brno, the Pilsen company, and the Prague Chamber Ballet all have new artistic directors. Vlastimil Harapes left the National Theatre Ballet in Prague after twelve years. His place was taken by Petr Zuska, who returned from abroad in 2002. Zdenk Proke led the ballet company in Brno for fourteen years. On Prokes appointment as director of the National Theatre in Brno, Karel Littera was made head of the ballet company, where until that time he had been soloist and dramaturge of the ballet. After almost thirty years with the Prague Chamber Ballet (with a short interval at the end of the 1990s) Pavel mok handed the sceptre over to Pavel umbala. umbala had previously headed the ballet company in Pilsen, where he was replaced by Ji Pokorn. This foursome of new artistic directors have much in common. They are from the generation now in its thirties and forties. The only one with experience in leading
a company is the oldest, Pavel umbala . Ji Pokorn and Karel Littera were dancing till not long ago, and Petr Zuska still is. In the 1990s Zuska, Pokorn and umbala were all soloists at the National Theatre in the 1990s, and all three have ambitions as choreographers. So far, the only master in this field is Petr Zuska. Meanwhile, the repertoire of the Pilsen ballet holds to its own traditions and works chiefly with Czech choreographers. The traditional Nutcracker was given here in a version by Ji Kyselk and two successful productions by Libor Vaculk, with small adaptations from the National Theatre in Prague ( Some Like It Hot and Little Mr. Friedemann + Psycho). The works which were part of the most striking dramaturgical line of ballet of the Prague National Theatre of the 1990s (among the best productions are those on which the choreographer Libor Vaculk worked with the Slovak director Jozef Bednrik), point to one characteristic feature of contemporary Czech ballet: companies ever more frequently transfer productions, often including the design concept and sometimes even the cast. The record is held by Libor Vaculks dance musical: Edith Little Sparrow from the Suburbs, which had its premiere in
"Slavonic Duets / Prask komorn balet 2000 / choreography and set design Libor Vaculk / costumes Roman olc / music Antonn Dvok
>Photo Roman Sejkot
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Pilsen in 2000 and after that was shown in Prague, Olomouc and Brno. Nor does Brno expect any major changes. Zdenk Proke, who was artistic director here until 2004, tried to apply his distinctive dramaturgy, in which he neither relied solely on traditional audience-pullers, nor rushed into exaggerated risky experiments. He revived classical ballets never seen in this country, or only rarely (La Bayadre in 2003; for 2005 he is working on the Czech premiere of Le Corsaire). He gave greater space to Czech choreographers in composite programmes. The first of his major promising works in recent years was presented by Ji Hork (Daphnis and Chloe, 2001) and Hana Litterov (Symphonic Fantasy, music by Bohuslav Martin, 2004). Sometimes Zdenk Proke contributed to the repertoire, predominantly with comedies which rely on situation humour ( Les Biches, music by Francis Poulenc, 2001; Partita for String Orchestra and Piano, music by Vtzslava Kaprlov, 2004). A significant part of the dramaturgy consisted of new or newly conceived whole-evening ballets, primarily by the choreographer
>Photo Roman Sejkot
Libor Vaculk (most recently Ivan the Terrible). The change of ballet directors at the National Theatre in Prague was a more radical stroke. Both the method of work and dramaturgy changed, to look more towards the West, towards modern dance movement. Petr Zuska talks about his dramaturgy which is difficult to define as an attempt at maximum variety. He presents high-quality works from the end of the last century: short pieces, presented in the context of composite programmes (Duats choreography for Jard Tancat and Kylins for Stamping Ground ) and imported whole-evening productions in a classical or neoclassical spirit (The Taming of the Shrew by John Cranko and Nutcracker in a version by Youri Vmos). More problematic are works which foreign guests have created for the National Theatre (Black and Blues by the Belgian Stijn Celis, Imprint by the Canadian Shawn Hounsell and Giselle choreographed by Christopher Hampson from Britain). Czech work has been less well represented at the National Theatre by Petr Zuska and, with the dance musical Lucrezia Borgia, by Libor Vaculk.
Dances According to Brahms / Prask komorn balet 2002 / choreography and lights Libor Vaculk / costumes Roman olc / music Johannes Brahms
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Lucrezia Borgia / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2003 / choreography and directed by Libor Vaculk / set design Jan Duek / music Petr Malsek
>Photo Roman Sejkot
The Prague Chamber Ballet, the best known chamber dance group outside the official ballet network, unique in the context of what once was Eastern Europe, fought against financial problems almost continually in its history. In spite of this, its dramaturgy has been the most original. Three years ago the company came under the management of the State Opera in Prague. However, the stable background in a large opera house has required compromises which the new chief Pavel umbala has begun to implement. As a new development, the Prague Chamber Ballet has to combine with the ballet company of the State Opera for large ballets (productions imported from Pilsen, La Dame aux Camellias and Cinderella ). The importance of the composite programmes is weakening, and guest performances in smaller Czech towns and cities and abroad are less frequent. Recently the Prague Chamber Ballet has been appearing ever more frequently under the heading of the State Opera, losing its specific dramaturgical and choreographic quality. These changes have also contributed to a rapid turnover of a substantial part of the ensemble.
No changes in the regional theatres (Liberec, st nad Labem,

Ostrava, Olomouc, esk Budjovice)
An experiment was inaugurated in Liberec in 2000. The leading of the ballet company was entrusted to the striking personality of independent dance Petr Tyc . However, his attempt to replace the traditional ballet company by an alternative dance group foundered within a year. The Liberec public did not find the profile premiere The Little I Know About the Sylphides (To mlo, co vm o Sylfidch) acceptable and it was dropped from the repertoire after only two performances. Other showings of this work met with a much better reception in the Prague theatre Ponec, oriented to contemporary dance and movement projects. The artistic head of the Liberec ballet company from 2001 has been Vlasta Vindukov . Under her leadership the company has returned to a more traditional ballet repertoire to which she has added attractively high-quality Prague guests known from the media in the leading roles. An interesting part of the repertoire consists of productions by Gustav Skla. Sklas original direction (often not belonging to any specific genre) bridges over the limited conditions of
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La Dame aux Camellias / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2001 / choreography and directed by Libor Vaculk / set design Jan Duek / costumes Roman olc music Giuseppe Verdi >Photo Marta Kolafov
the dance company (Autumn Carnival [Podzimn karneval], 2001; Salieri? Mozart!, 2003). In 2000 Vladimr Neas was appointed head of ballet in st nad Labem. Here there is a characteristic alternation of audience-pulling traditional classical works Vain Caution (Marn opatrnost), The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai) with experimental, often even controversial premi res (Farinelli and Night Birds with choreography by Petr imek). It is worth noting that in the Czech Republic the st company holds first place in the number of foreign artists engaged. Igor Vejsada has been head of ballet in Ostrava for a number of years. He regularly works with foreign choreographers (such as Eric Trottier and Jozef Sabovk). He is also a choreographer himself, especially in modern programmes (Dvokstory, The Doors, Eva). The Olomouc ballet has also had many years of stability under J i S e k a n i n a . Ballets lasting a whole evening predominate in its repertoire. The choreographers Robert
Les Bras de Mer / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2004 / choreography and set design Petr Zuska / costumes Roman olc / music Yann Tiersen
>Photo Oldich Pernica
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Balogh ( Romeo and Juliet, Madame Butterfly ) and Ji Kyselk (The Rite of Spring, Peer Gynt) regularly work with the company. The ballet company in esk Budjovice, led for a number of years by Libue Krlov , is one of the smallest in the country and mounts only one or two premires during a season. Traditional titles predominate, adapted for the limited possibilities of the company and prepared by Libue Krlov herself (most frequently performed are the Czech ballet by the composer Oskar Nedbal From Fairy Tale to Fairy Tale [ Z pohdky do pohdky ], Swan Lake , Cinderella). One exception which was warmly received was Enchanted Love in a revealing version by choreographer David Slobapyck in a Surrealist-style setting by Stanislav Burda (2001).
aux Camellias to Verdis music, was shown first in Pilsen in 2001 where it met with a warm reception, as it did during its foreign tours. After two years it was transferred with some small changes to the State Opera in Prague. Both the broad spectrum of the public and specialists enthused over Vaculks most recent dance evening-long production Ivan the Terrible. This production by the Brno National Theatre in 2002 won the Divadeln noviny (Theatre News) Award for the best achievement of the season in the field of dance and ballet, and further nominations in prestigious questionnaires. In Ivan the Terrible Vaculk strikingly adapted the libretto of the ballet to music by Sergei Prokofiev. In comparison with the famous version by Yuri Grigorovich it is more actual, and more focused on the personality of Ivan the Terrible and his regime. The title characters he drew as an ambiguous personality, as a man
Sparrow from the Suburbs / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2000 / libretto, choreography and directed by Libor Vaculk / set design Jan Duek music Petr Malsek >Photo Marta Kolafov
Choreographers
Incontestably the most important contemporary choreographer of Czech origin is the former head of the Netherlands Dance Theatre J i K y l i n . His work has a specific meaning for the Czech ballet. So far he has not created any original choreogaphy in the Czech Republic and his older works have been mounted only by the Prague Chamber Ballet and the National Theatre in Prague. His influence on contemporary Czech ballet is mediated: a production of his choreography is a test of the preparedness of a company; inspiration from Kylins works can be noted in the case of some Czech choreographers. Among leading Czech choreographers, P a v e l m o k should not be overlooked. His work peaked in the last third of the 20th century, but he is still artistically active, even though his new works are now only sporadic, and are as a rule longer narrative ballets ( Golem , with music by Zbynk Matj, 2001; in cooperation with Pavel umbala Prokofievs Cinderella, 2004) or choreography for the opera. One of the most striking contemporary choreographers is Libor Vaculk . In the 1990s several of his original eveninglong ballets were shown at the National Theatre (Tchaikovsky, Isadora Duncan, Little Mr. Friedemann + Psycho etc.). This inventive choreographer is ever more transformed into a zealous director a dance narrator. During the last five years short ballets without a striking story were more of an exception. He has usually worked for the Prague Chamber Ballet ( Slavonic Duets [ Slovansk dvojzpvy] to music by Antonn Dvok; Dances According to Brahms [Tance podle Brahmse]). In the evening-long works, he concentrates more and more on the structure of the libretto, the directing and the lighting. He knows how to arch over the story and at the same time to stage it in a form attractive for audiences. His evening-long ballet, La Dame
>Photo Roman Sejkot
#"Between the Mountains / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2003 / choreography Petr Zuska / set design Richard Maka / lights Daniel Tesa / music echomor #Ways 03 / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2003 / choreography and set design Petr Zuska / music Arvo Prt >Photo Roman Sejkot
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cruel on the outside but sensitive within. He succeeded in capturing the complicated development of Ivan the Terrible from a timid youth who, after being seated on the throne changes into a despot and ends as a wreck tormented by his ilness. He found an original dance characteristic for several of the main characters (as well as Ivan the Terrible there is the character of Starick). Moreover, this Vaculk production is in a happy combination with a high-quality and very effective visual setting, by Roman olc (costumes) and Peter aneck (set). An inter-genre novelty the dance musical is linked with the name of Libor Vaculk. Snow-white and the Seven Racers (Snhurka a sedm zvodnk) can be counted as the first of these, premired in Bratislava in 1991. The concept of the dance musical is exemplified in the very successful production Edith Sparrow from the Suburbs, about the fate of the chansoniere Edith Piaf. The ballet company is supplemented by two singers the Narrator and Edith Piaf.
D. M. J. 1953-1977 / Nrodn divadlo, Brno 2004 / choreography Petr Zuska
set design Jan Petr / costumes Roman olc / music Antonn Dvok, Bohuslav Martin, Leo Janek >Photo archives of the theatre
An interesting effect is achieved by the twinned and sophisticated exchanges of the interpreters of the title role the singer and the dancer. Radka Fiarov was dazzling as the singer at the Pilsen premiere, and also performed in Prague, Olomouc and Brno. Lucrezia Borgia is another dance musical, shown at the National Theatre in 2003. The principle was analogous to Edith. There were three sung roles, and in inventive changes the title role was again represented by a singer and a dancer. However, Lucrezia Borgia fully laid bare something increasingly apparent in Libor Vaculks previous productions: an inclination towards a major spectacular show, drawing from cheap, vulgar themes. In the case of Vaculk even such productions are established on a very good choreographic craft. Recently Vaculk has thrown himself fully into the field of the musical (most recently as director and choreographer of The Three Musketeers with music by Michal David). His up to now purely dance work is performed in new productions by ballet companies countrywide. Libor Vaculk is a choreographer highly in demand in the Czech Republic. As well as Vaculk, who dominated Czech ballet in the 1990s, the work of Petr Zuska grows ever more striking. His work in choreography and his dance career, divided between the Prague Chamber Ballet and the National Theatre, began in the 1990s. After a three-year engagement abroad he returned to the National Theatre in 2002 again as a dancer, more effectively as a choreographer, and for the first time as artistic director. The style of his choreography has changed; it is more cosmopolitan, in a more contemporary language, its resonance often more abstract. Zuskas exceptional musicality and his deep relationship with Czech music remains, and is possibly even more powerful. In contrast to Libor Vaculk, Zuska has been more and more attracted towards shorter works, given in the context of composite programmes. His style is extremely legible, although used for the creation of original works. He says himself that for every work he must first find his own choreographic key. Thanks to this, his work operates in a very conceptual way, sometimes even fabricated. The premiere of the project Graffiti at the Magic Lantern (Laterna magica) in Prague (2002) was a harbinger of Zuskas return to Prague. The choreography was shared by three Czech dancers working abroad. Alongside the experienced Zuska were the novices Vclav Kune from the Netherlands Dance Theatre and Ji Bubenek from the Hamburg ballet. Zuskas part, called Les Bras de Mer, was a quartet for a man, a woman, a table and a chair. It captures the extinguishing relationship between partners from the first squabbles to the final alienation. It is a very dynamic, integrated flow of dancing where movement passes between
$"D. M. J. 1953-1977 / Nrodn divadlo, Brno 2004 / choreography Petr Zuska / set design Jan Petr / costumes Roman olc / music Antonn Dvok, Bohuslav Martin, Leo Janek >Photo archives $Stamping Ground / Nrodn divadlo, Praha 2003 / choreography and set design Ji Kilin / music Chvez Carlos >Photo Roman Sejkot
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the living artists and the two pieces of furniture in a natural way. Zuska adapted his choreography for the National Theatre in Prague two years later. Purged of the original filmed interpolations (which were part of the Magic Lantern technique), this work acquired a new luminous design which enhanced its quality. Shortly before taking over his post at the National Theatre, Zuska unveiled a new premire at the Prague Chamber Ballet. The key to this work (Marys Dream [Mariin sen], 2002) was a mystification about an alleged phantasmagoric dream by the famous ballerina Marie Taglioni. Zuska dexterously linked in two jewels of the ballet: The Dying Swan to music by Camille Saint-Saens and the famous Pas de quatre by the composer Cesare Pugni. Everything is turned upside down in a ballet lasting barely half an hour. Instead of the dying white swan there is a swan-dancer dressed in a charming black costume. The four ballerinas from the famous romantic Pas de quatre are replaced by a quartet of gentlemen in white ballet skirts. That is the impulse for a geyser of choreographic but also purely situational ideas, in places witty quotations of everyday stereotypes, and at the same time gentle parodies of Perrots choreography. Without contest, one of the most successful comic ballets of recent years. After his arrival at the National Theatre Zuska became the main co-creator of the repertoire. He was responsible for the choreography of Between the Mountains (Mezi horami) (2002), which he created to music by the BohemianMoravian group echomor, with its ethnic tendencies. In this work Zuska surprised us with his unaccustomed literalness and congested choreographic invention. His subsequent Ways 03 (2003) was at the opposite pole, very abstract group choreography, in which the original lighting design played a major role. In 2003 his choreography of Bolero for the Prague dance conservatoire called the audiences interest. For a composition adapted for dance many times he managed to find a completely new concept. He found a key to the staging in a stage property a dice. He used the stages of Ravels composition, which has its own divisions in the number six. With mathematical precision he changed the arithmetical value on a large cube and with it the configuration of the dancers and the dividing up of the
spotlights. Different variants are played at an imaginary throw a duet changes into a trio and so on. The work D. M. J. 1953-1977 was a complete novelty from Petr Zuska. It was performed in the context of a composite programme devoted to Czech composers (premire 2004 in Brno). Zuska selected parts of compositions by Antonn Dvok, Bohuslav Martin and Leo Janek (therefore the initials in the title of the work), on which he modelled the micro-story of a dying girl-pianist and a demon, maybe a phantom of death. This was again a work sensitively derived from the music, with an unusually fluent flow of movement in which Zuskas choreographic signature is clearly evident: the determining work with the stage object (as in Bolero, Les Bras de Mer and the earlier choreography for Sonata [ Sonta ]), which are this time tall black horsehair mattresses. These in indications represent catafalques, or a giant sofa. The scene where the mattresses, positioned one behind the other, fall in a domino effect just as the girls life is collapsing, is very effective. The stage objects do not operate only as scenery and as a powerful metaphorical element, but often directly motivate the choreography. Jan Kodet is very close to Zuska not only in age, but also in style of work and experience abroad. Both of them belong to the few choreographers who work in traditional ballet companies but are at the same time accepted by a public orienting itself exclusively to contemporary, independent dance. Kodets Lola and Mr. Talk (Divadeln noviny Award for 2003/04) recently aroused a great response. The hour-long composition for two male dancers and one female, performed in Archa Theatre, captures the dissolution of a partnership which reveals itself by means of a shared doppelganger. This figure has a distinctive name: He, who is missing. Kodet charges this production with a number of new ideas and plays with a bizarre intertwined threesome. The alienating stumble and the subsequent recovery of balance adds interest to the choreography. The lighting designer Daniel Tesa has a key share in the resonance of this work. The light emphasises the space for the choreography, completely resonates with it, and at the same time carries with it several effective visual metaphors.
How they Ballet in Bohemia
The DNO Phenomenon

Nina Malkov
Ji Jelnek, Rybstory / DNO, Hradec Krlov 2001

directed by Ji Jelnek and DNO / set design and puppets Ji Jelnek and DNO >Photo Irena Vodkov
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THE DNO PHENOMENON
Four years ago they shot into view like a glowing comet, at two leading amateur puppet festivals almost simultaneously: Puppeteers Chrudim and Jirseks Hronov 2001. At one fell swoop they captivated a bunch of admirers and not only audiences but also (amazingly) the professional critics.
owever, the sudden emergence of the theatre known energy and the irreplaceable leading personality of Ji as DNO will not be a complete surprise to anyone Jelnek (when he took over the group, he worked as who knows even just a little bit the puppet nursery a postman). They were still under the protective wings of the Jesliky of the Jesliky Theatre (attached to the Primary School for the Arts in Hradec Krlov), the personalities who have theatre when they first drew attention to themselves with passed through it, and the people who are teaching there the original treatment of a story with fairy-tale motifs, today. It was Jan V. Dvok who, years ago, sowed the seed Never-Never (Bj-bj). The unproclaimed aesthetic of this of the grotesquely oriented puppet theatre with its legacy of company already showed itself strongly in the ability to Czech puppet tradition for his pupils (at that time still overturn established clichs in words and situations in students on a generously conceived several-year-long a single point, in a surprising ending to an anecdotal story. amateur course). Dvoks name is written into the history In the fairy-tale Never-Never, brothers set out into the world of modern puppet theatre as a director and dramaturge of to look for a lost sister. After overcoming many fairy-tale the most famous period of the theatre DRAK also in trials they return home, only to find that they had pinned their hidden, sought-for Hradec Krlov in the sister into a tree by a knife 1960s and 1970s. thrust in the first scene. The young people who This unexpected final today create the backbone overturning was already of the free society of characteristic of their early changing generations works but was best workedknown as the Theatre out in the Variations on the DNO are linked by Famous Theme of Cyrano. a feeling for theatre, Here, Cyranos unrequited design, music, a sense for love for Roxana is dupparodic abbreviation, licated in the story of verbal humour and Roxanas servant who, no theatrical improvisation. less unrequitedly and hopeThey took their very first lessly, loves only the lovetheatrical steps in absorbed Cyrano. Jesliky, but quickly grew The story of the Theatre out of their baby bootees, DNO, which began in 2000 became the natural with the official founding opponents of their of an open society of previously admired teapeople who want to create chers, and stepped out something today numinto the world for bers around twenty themselves. They have in productions for the most common a playfulness, part miniatures only a few a surprising and minutes long, excluding irreverent treatment of an hour-long montage of sacred themes and songs, poems and literary models (incluanecdotes called Revue , ding the popular boys and Variations on the comic Quick Arrows Famous Theme of Cyrano, [ Rychl py ], the bibthe most striking in prolically inspired Donkey duction until now content [ Oslk ] and Variations on and form as well as being the Famous Theme of Divadlo DNO, Around the Table / DNO, Hradec Krlov 2003 the longest (even at half Cyrano [ Variace na slavn >Photo Ivo Mikal an hour). The thing that tma Cyrano ]), enormous
THE DNO PHENOMENON
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The DNO Phenomenon

musical hits) with which connects all their theain its productions it works trical, musical and even in a spirit of grotesque visual production is p l a y f u l n e s s . Playfulness exaggeration or mockery, or to which it refers. with language, in work DNO is not a puppet with the puppet, playcompany in the true sense fulness contained even in of the word. The puppet is a changeable form of used primarily as an reprises of individual instigation to play, and the titles. One of their latest public is invited to join in. productions Around the The generational interTable (Okolo stola) is connectedness shows evidence that the aim of itself in the use of their work is not playunappealing, mass-produfulness for the sake of it, ced typified marionettes, or hiding behind and scenery from a family a childish view of the theatre which once world . In the intimate was the only one available story of a couple whose in Czech toy shops. The playfulness at any price reverent-irreverent use of leads to the break-up of puppets in these scenes their relationship, the and productions corcompany held up the responds completely to mirror to their own the ambivalent relationprinciple taken ad ship of the company to absurdum of boundless puppet tradition. Another playfulness and an evasive characteristic feature of closing into a non-binding the visual appearance of world of play and word these productions is the play at any price. frequently used small If the most striking stage made of ordinary feature of the theatre DNO Eva imanov, Ji Jelnek, Anatomy / DNO, Hradec Krlov 2002 2003 paper boxes. Apart from is playfulness, then one directed by and set Eva imanov and Ji Jelnek >Photo Ivo Mikal this, the paper box is cannot overlook the onalmost a cult object for stage confrontation of the DNO it is not only used word and its unexpected visual meaning, the literally realised word play (in the onstage but is transformed into the painted drum which production Anatomy [Anatomie], words go in at one ear usually accompanies the opening procession of all the and out at the other of the heroine-puppet, carried out by actors. Sometimes a kinship with the Buns and Puppets (Buchty the drawing of a ribbon of paper with Morse-code trough the head of the puppet). However, most word play is exclusively a loutky) company is mentioned in connection with DNO. tied to the Czech language, and so the transferability of The inspiration of DNO by the ten-year-older theatrical these productions at some of the foreign festivals will model is apparent especially in the dramaturgy in clearly be complicated (with the possible exception of references to film, theatre, musical and book titles Variations on the Famous Theme of Cyrano). The whole (variations on the books on Vinnetou, classic fairy tales) poetic of the theatre relies on a Czech public of one and found too in other connections relating to childhood generation and its background (those who have followed the and its properties, and even in those polyecran paper stages. same childrens programmes on television, read the same However, whereas the Buns and Puppets company is popular childrens literature and listened to the same renowned for its skill in puppetry and professional
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THE DNO PHENOMENON
Divadlo DNO, Around the Table / DNO, Hradec Krlov 2003 >Photo Ivo Mikal
knowledge, DNO with programmatic negligence or deliberate carelessness visibly defends itself against professional parameters. Today, an unspoken question hangs over a company which for the last five years has been leaving its mark on contemporary Czech amateur theatre: What next? Some members of the ensemble now work with the professional theatre in Hradec Krlov (Vladimr Morveks Bartered Bride, Visit of the Old Lady, and the variations on Shakespeare, Paris); others dont want to abandon their original aim of simple occasional amateur playing for pleasure. The professionalisation of the company, or at least its transformation into an officially independent group, is at
hand. Will the DNO be merely a comet, fleetingly glimpsed, as some have prophesied, or will it turn into a permanent star in the Czech theatrical heaven? Its hard to say. Either way, its existence has brought an enthusiastic public to theatres and theatre festivals, which other amateur puppet companies can so far only dream about. P.S. Theatre DNO DNO was originally an abbreviation of Divadlo Na okraji (Theatre on the Fringe), called after the companys original home on the outskirts of Hradec Krlov. At present the abbreviation is perceived as the word dno bottom something on the lowest rung both socially and artistically another little joke in the spirit of the companys poetics.
The DNO Phenomenon
NOTEBOOK / THE ALFRD RADOK AWARDS
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Notebook
Alfrd Radok Awards 2004
The Alfrd Radok Awards which are made on the basis of questionnaires answered by critics for the magazine Svt a divadlo (World and Theatre) annually provide reliable information about exceptional productions and activities in the Czech theatre. This year, 56 theatre critics and reporters sent in their answers. The traditionally most important award is Production of the Year, presented to a theatre director. At the end of March, on the stage of the Theatre of the Estates (Stavovsk divadlo), the gilded laurel wreath the Alfrd Radok Award went to Jan Nebesk (see Czech Theatre 20) for Ernst Jandls Estrangement, staged by the Theatre on the Balustrades (Divadlo Na zbradl) in Prague. The nominated productions included J. A. Pitnsks The Dolls House, Ji Hemans Flying Dutchman, Vladimr Morveks Prince Myshkin is an Idiot (Kne Mykin je idiot) and Ji Pokorns The Farmers Woman (Gazdina roba). The Alfrd Radok Award for Best Actress was taken by Daniela Kolov
(as the mother in Thomas Bernhards The Goal Attained) and for Best Actor by Boris Rsner (for the role of the Miser in Molires play of the same name see Czech Theatre 20). The highly-prized title of Theatre of the Year was won by the Theatre on the Balustrades in Prague which in this years Alfrd Radok Awards received the greatest number of nominations in all categories. For the first time the Moravian Slovak Theatre (Slovck divadlo) in Uhersk Hradit appeared among those nominated. The Alfrd Radok Award for Play of the Year, for an original Czech work produced for the first time, was won by the opera by Martin Smolka and Jaroslav Duek, Nagano. The Alfrd Radok Award for stage design went to Pavel Svoboda for the staging of Wagners opera The Flying Dutchman. An anonymous Czecho-Slovak drama competition is an integral part of the Alfrd Radok Awards. This year 11 of the 58 plays entered reached the finals. Prizes went to Roman Olekk for Smilies (Smajlci, Slovakia), Miroslav Bambuek for Porta apostolorum (Czech Republic) and Duan Vicen for Silhouette in B flat minor (Siluet b moll, Slovakia). Mr
Alfrd Radok Awards: from left to right, composer Petr Hromdka is awarded the prize in the category Music, MC Ji Jelnek, Ondej ern director of the Theatre Institute; Boris Rsner Alfrd Radok Award for Best Actor, Ondej ern, Pavel Dostl minister of culture of the Czech Republic; director Jan Nebesk with a laurel wreath, the Production of the Year Award.
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NOTEBOOK / NEW BOOKS AND DVDs FROM THE THEATRE INSTITUTE
New Books and DVDs from the Theatre Institute

"Ji Frejka: Divadlo je vesmr
(The Theatre is a Universe) The third volume in the series of Essays, Criticism and Analyses (ESEJE, KRITIKY, ANALZY) from the esk divadlo publications contains a selection of theoretical essays by the major Czech director of the inter-war theatrical avant-garde Ji Frejka (19041952). This anthology of Frejkas important and so far unpublished theatre writings (existing in typescript and manuscript) from 192352 captures his contribution to the theoretical thought and creative programme of the inter-war avantgarde. In his concept of theatre, Frejka emphasised especially imagination and conscience and considered theatre to be a resource which shapes social morality. At the same time he rejected conservative traditionalism and sought for modern expressive means for a contemporary, dispassionate concept of life, emphasised the imaginative elements or grotesque stylisation and dance movement and required that the actor stood apart from the character. This anthology of Frejkas essays follows not only the development of a creative personality, but also reflects the situation of the Czech artist and theatre in a time when first the German occupation and then Communism had limited freedom. The carefully annotated publication is preceded by a biographical study by the editor Ladislava Petikov, and the volume is supplemented by a complete list of Frejkas theoretical articles on theatre and of his productions.
"Vlasta Smolkov: Fenomn Lbl 2

(The Lbl Phenomenon 2) To mark 40 years since the birth of the director Petr Lbl, the Theatre Institute, in cooperation with the publishing house Prask scna, has brought out the second part of a book which documents the intensive work of one of the most talented Czech theatre directors of the modern age, using a collage method (reviews, interviews, photographs and other texts). Petr Lbl was a Renaissance man he directed, designed sets, wrote, and at times proved to have a remarkable acting talent. Whilst Fenomn Lbl 1 (1996) mapped Lbls work from his amateur beginnings with the company Doprapo up to 1995, the second part devotes itself to his work at the Theatre on the Balustrades from 1995 to his suicide at the end of 1999. Even from the distance of a mere six years since Lbls death, it is clear that his productions, even his peripheral television appearances, witnessed very intensely to the man and his time. The book also presents a relatively typical cross-section of the state of Czech theatre criticism, whose authors were both irritated and inspired by Lbls productions. Mr
NOTEBOOK / NEW BOOKS AND DVDs FROM THE THEATRE INSTITUTE / CZECH THEATRES IN NUMBERS / NEW CZECH PLAYS IN REPERTORY
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New Books and DVDs from the Theatre Institute

"Czech Dance in action DVD + CD
This DVD presents excerpts from fifteen choreographic works created by a strong and inspired generation of contemporary Czech dance. The DVD draws attention to the dance works on the independent stages as well as to the innovative work of official ballet stages. The DVD Czech Dance also provides concise but pertinent information about the spectrum of creative approaches and forms which contemporary Czech dance art offers. Part of the DVD is a CD with dramaturgical and technical information and internet links which make direct contact with individual productions possible. The DVD is published by the Theatre Institute in cooperation with the NGO Tanec Praha (Dance Prague).
Czech Theatres in Numbers

There are 51 repertoire theatres operating in the Czech Republic, each with its own company/ies of various genres (14 of them have more than one company, the usual model being based on three companies: opera, drama and ballet). These theatres receive regular grants from local and regional budgets (43 theatres) and from the national budget (8 theatres). There are other 35 permanent stages without their own company financed from public funds (local budgets). In the 2003-2004 season a total of 200 theatres and permanent groups of artists regularly and consistently participated in theatre life in the Czech Republic. These theatres and theatre companies presented a total of 1 470 titles. 749 premieres were presented. A total of 26 000 performances took place (in the Czech Republic and on tour abroad) which weere seen by more than 6,4 million theatre-goers (average attendance 84 %). The reduction in the number of performances (and consequently audience numbers) in comparison with the previous seasons was the result of the catastrophic floods of August 2002 3 theatres performed in substitute space. More than 2 milliard Czech crowns was provided from public funds for the support of theatrical activity.
New Czech Plays in Repertory

"KFT (Karel Frantiek Tomnek) Sandwiches of Reality
(KFT / Sendvie reality) A play about life, death & sex
8 m, 7 f Ann throws Neal out of the flat. Jack tries to calm things down, but Neal, at Anns bedside holding a revolver, entreats Ann to make love with him. When he is again refused, Neal throws the weapon at Ann: Then Id rather you did away with me! But before she has time to shoot him, he jumps on her. The shot whizzes past into the ceiling. Ann surrenders to Neal. Neal cries: Thats the stuff, Jack, write that down. Thirty-five similarly dramatic scenes capture the world of the legendary personalities of the beat generation of course, from the viewpoint of todays Generation X. The messy love affairs of Neil Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, with others and even among themselves, are an indivisible part of the time when the sexual revolution and rocknroll, literary experiments and experimentation with drugs, all started. Abstracted from their literary fame the characters as themselves occupy grotesque situations which shifted into a fast tempo paradoxically became something like poetry. The play was given a sympathetic production on the stage of the Dejvice Theatre (where the central European hit, Petr Zelenkas Tales of Common Insanity originated), the world premiere being directed by Miroslav Krobot (15.10.2004). It has just been nominated for the Alfrd Radok Awards in the category of Play of the Year. The text is available from the Aura-pont agency.
"Arnot Goldflam: The Directors Box

(editelsk le)
2 m, 1 f Arnot Goldflam has several times turned to a theatre setting for his plays (The Ticket Girl [Biletka], Debate with the Maestro, etc.). His second latest piece, The Directors Box (editelsk le), takes place in an old folks home, where two forgotten actors spend long hours together. With both irony and nostalgia they remember the past and try as best they can to recall the odd moments when they were truly happy. I wanted to write about actors and their failings and faults, without emotion, rather about their human destinies, says Arnot Goldflam, and I also wanted it to be with hindsight, not those times full of action, but what remained of them. There have been three readings, in Brno, in Prague and in Hradec Krlov and all of them were a great success, and people laughed a lot. I wanted it to be an audience piece, where people enjoyed themselves and where there would be a fair amount of transcendence. Premiere 30 November 2004 in the HaTheatre (HaDivadlo) in Brno. The play was nominated for the Alfrd Radok Awards the Czech version of the Olivier
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NOTEBOOK / NEW CZECH PLAYS IN REPERTORY
New Czech Plays in Repertory

Awards in the category of Play of the Year. The text is available from the Aura-pont agency.
"Iva Volnkov: 3sisters2002.cz

(3sestry2002.cz)
7 m, 4 f, chorus As the title indicates, the play takes place in the present day. In the centre of the action, we find Olga, Masha and Irina, characters that the author has pointed out. Olga is a cynical, spiteful old maid with neurotic affectations, haunted by erotic thoughts. Irina is even more cynical (compared with Chekhovs character), playing sexual games in public with her monumental lover. We also find Masha in the crisis she has just had an abortion and is resigned to everything. In addition, she is trying to resolve the issue of artificial insemination its unnaturalness simply disgusts her. However, the sisters world is complicated not only by their internal problems, but also by external attacks: a fire brigade during its training exercises invades the sisters garden; a mysterious man with a hat leaves a suspicious box; and Vclav Klaus personally telephones day-care worker Luisa (like a million other Czechs during his last election campaign). Mashas husband cannot become director of his school because he was a collaborator with the Communist secret police. On the radio, we learn about a hostage-taking incident where hundreds of hostages are detained by Chechen terrorists, and poisoned by some unknown gas during an unsuccessful liberation attempt. The only characters that seemingly do not allow themselves to be pulled from the world are Andrei (much younger than Chekhovs character), who does not leave his room where he plays computer games, and the Father a retired general who has decided not to communicate with anyone. Everything is intertwined in the resulting apocalypse where all is annihilated. It is impossible to live normally in todays world with todays information. The world is neither for men nor for women and certainly not for children. The apocalypse of course occurs also on the television, while the characters sit in the garden and cook sausages. In 2002, the play received the prestigious 2nd prize in the anonymous Alfrd Radok competition for the best original theatre play. The text is available from the Aura-pont agency.
Four leading artists, the film directors Leni, Elia and Otakar and the sculptor of monuments Gerasim, who influenced mass aesthetics and the way reality is depicted artistically in the 20th century, are confined to a training base. The warders Lyndie and Granier subject them to mental terror, injuring the dignity of their age. We soon discover that this training is preparation for the new task with which the senile celebrities of mass art have been entrusted. As the shapers of public opinion, they have to propose a method by which the arrest of the dictator will be announced to the world and by which the dictator will be despatched from the world in such a way that his death will not arouse an inappropriate reaction. The artists, who each in their own way collaborated with one of the totalitarian powers of the 20th century and who were exploited, circumscribed and at the same time corrupted by the powerful, meet their tyrants again. In the proposed scenarios for the removal of the dictator they make use of all their knowledge of the 20th century and reconstruct the fall of Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Ceausescu and Pol Pot. However, the discourse about the power of demoralised art over confused reality does not offer satisfactory results. The captive dictator always has superiority over those who have served power in such a way that unrecognised and unforgiven guilt of the past has power over today. The conclusion degenerates into a grotesque slaughter. With references to the commonly experienced reality of the last century and to the false hopes of the present, the play is a reflection on the power of images over the freedom of our thinking. The text is available from Dilia.
"Miroslav Bambuek: Porta apostolorum

cast: 7 m, 2 f A small post-war evening party in a small frontier town, a small evening reckoning with a respected German family. A cruel, terrible play about things everyone would prefer to know nothing about. Fritz is celebrating his birthday, and his fellow-pupils come to the celebration: Mr. Starosta, having returned from a concentration camp, the police representative and other inhabitants of the frontier town of Postellberg. Fritzs mother Maria serves them horseflesh and they all look forward to the electric current coming on and being able to listen to the gramophone. The war has ended, but wrongs and hate remain in their hearts. Who is involved in the conspiracy against Fritzs German family? Who came to celebrate and who to carry out the terrible act of retaliation? Bambueks heart-rending Sudeten-German story is acted out on three basic time levels which are connected to each other, run parallel, or interpenetrate without the author noticeably distinguishing between them. He thus shapes a terrifying symphony of voices of those who went through the purging of the war years, and shows how difficult is the return to normal life. Post-modern
"Jan Vedral: Mme ho! (Sta reisi)

We Got Him! (Old Directors)
3 f, 5 m The capture of the dictator Saddam Hussein was announced to the world in 2004 with the cry of relief We Got him!.
NOTEBOOK / NEW CZECH PLAYS IN REPERTORY
/67
tendencies in the text show themselves through collaged quotations beginning with Lenins biography, through the Czech 1980s childrens magazine Pionr, to Patrik Ouednks successful book Europeana published in 2001. The author replaces the stage directions by todays popular emotion indicators smilies. All these things create the terrifying but simultaneously grotesque atmosphere of Bambueks play. Miroslav Bambueks Porta Apostolorum came second in the 2004 Alfrd Radok Awards. The text is available from Dilia.
"Jarda Hrouda: Echte Kunst

Cast: 10 m Petr, Milan, Zdenk, Bda and Jirka are serving their sentences in a concentration camp for former pop stars of the era of normalisation, guarded by screws who used to belong to the underground culture. They dont do too badly thanks to the weakness of the head of the camp Miler and to contacts from the past, they manage to maintain their life-style in the luxury to which they were accustomed. They dont even seem to mind having lost their freedom since the world outside is an evil, new, unfriendly world to which they no longer belong. The only one whom it upsets is Jirka. What he minds is that the music he always loved is being dragged through the mud and he cannot give it to the people he is sure are longing for it. Then a new head arrives at the camp, Zoubek. He introduces a new, harder regime, and chiefly a new cultural
policy. The former stars are to become galley slaves of the new culture. They are to compose music but someone else will put lyrics to it, play and sing to it. The new rulers are aware that the new culture cannot do without the old. People must be given new thoughts in the old form to which they are accustomed. It seems that under the leadership of the cowardly Petr the artists accept such a position but Jirka delivers a fiery speech and they all side with him. But then the leader of the rebellion is put into solitary confinement and the others are exposed to a harsh regime. A new prisoner arrives, likewise a formerly prominent artist, Saa, whose denunciations during the post-revolutionary trials decided the fate of the other stars. Now its his turn. The new head takes him under his protection. Saa begins to compose for him, is rewarded with a comfortable life style, and serves as a means of mental pressure on the others. In the war of nerves Petr is the first to submit. He makes his peace with Saa and becomes another protge. It is plainly only a matter of time before the defiance of the others is broken. The just Milan joins a secret resistance group led by Jirka. They try to manufacture a radio and to warn people what is happening in the camp. The first broadcast, in which Jirka sings his new song, evokes a storm. But Zoubek & Co. succeed in riding the wave and joining the revolutionaries in the end Jirka has to be grateful that they accept him as one themselves. True art sets out on a victorious reconquest of your radio sets, ears and souls. The text is available from Dilia.
Notebook
SCENOGRAPHY 2005
exhibition of czech contemporary set and costume design
SALON of CZECH
September 1 October 15, 2005

Lobkowicz Palace, Jisk 3, Prague Castle Open every day except Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Organized by the National Museum, Theatre Institute and the Czech Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians More information at www.divadlo.cz/salon
EVERYTHING
YOU WANT
TO KNOW ABOUT www.theatre.cz
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Zbradl after Lbl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Shaping (and Captivity) through the Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Bernhard as an Opportunity for an Actor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

German Theatre Returns to Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Viktor Kronbauer Photographs the Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Falling Asleep in the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

How they Ballet in Bohemia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

The DNO Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Gabriela Preissov, Farmers Woman / Divadlo Na zbradl, Praha 2004 / directed

ZBRADL AFTER LBL

ZBRADL AFTER LBL

ZBRADL AFTER LBL

ZBRADL AFTER LBL

ZBRADL AFTER LBL

Zbradl after Lbl

Shaping (and Captivity)

SHAPING (AND CAPTIVITY) THROUGH THE WORD

SHAPING (AND CAPTIVITY) THROUGH THE WORD

Shaping (and Captivity) through the Word

BERNHARD AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN ACTOR

BERNHARD AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN ACTOR

BERNHARD AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN ACTOR

Bernhard as an Opportunity for an Actor

Heiner Mller, Hamlet Maschine / Nrodn divadlo Bouda, Praha 2003

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

"%$Bertolt Brecht, The Good Woman of Setzuan / Nrodn divadlo,

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

""Werner Schwab, The Presidents

"Werner Schwab, People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless / Prask

%Friedrich Schiller, The Bandits

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

%"Elfriede Jelinekov, Klara S. / Divadlo Komedie, Praha 2005

GERMAN THEATRE RETURNS TO BOHEMIA

German Theatre Returns to Bohemia

VIKTOR KRONBAUER PHOTOGRAPHS THE THEATRE

Viktor Kronbauer, Photographs the Theatre

Falling Asleep in the Sea

JI HEMAN: FALLING ASLEEP IN THE SEA

JI HEMAN: FALLING ASLEEP IN THE SEA

The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti.

A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.

A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.

A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.

Richard Wagner, Flying Dutchman / Divadlo J. K. Tyla, Plze 2004

A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.

A MARITIME DOUBLE. THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND LAMENTI.

A Maritime Double. The Flying Dutchman and Lamenti.

How they Ballet in Bohemia

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

No changes in the regional theatres (Liberec, st nad Labem,

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

HOW THEY BALLET IN BOHEMIA

How they Ballet in Bohemia

The DNO Phenomenon