Czech Theatre - 2003 - 2005

            The construction boom in the Czech theatre gathered momentum thanks to the solidarity with theatres hit by the floods in the summer 2002. The rivers Vltava and Labe flooded 17 theatres - some completely disappeared in their surging waters! Although it wasn't always simple to find the necessary funds, most of these theatres have already been repaired. The Semafor Theatre, headed since its founding in 1959 (!) by the legendary playwright, actor, singer, composer and painter Jiří Suchý, moved to a completely new home in Prague. Following its opening in September 2005, only one ensemble in Prague is still waiting to return to its old home - the Musical Theatre Karlín. The repairs will be to the tune of some 18 to 20 million euros.

            The boom, however, could be seen even in places untouched by the natural disaster. In October 2004 the Municipal Theatre Brno opened a new playhouse intended primarily for musicals. Actually, its director and producer Stanislav Moša is successfully expanding to Western Europe chiefly with musicals and shows consisting of individual numbers from various musicals. A year later Brno saw the reconstruction of the historical Reduta, home to the theatre since the 17th c. - even young Mozart held there a recital. At about that time in Ostrava the ensemble Arena of the Komorní scéna (hamber Stage) moved to a new building, while in Prague the theatre Minor, which has a special puppet ensemble, opened a second, studio-like auditorium.

            The many new playhouses and reconstructions of older buildings bespeak the respect and appreciation enjoyed in recent years by the Czech theatre. An unfortunate by-product of this success is the interest of politicians, who sometimes try more or less sub rosa to appoint as managers and directors "chosen" candidates regardless of their qualities. Most flagrant recent examples - competitions for the directors of the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre in Ostrava and of the Prague Municipal Theatres. Paradoxically, the interest shown by political lobby in the various arts did not result in more funds for culture, with the theatre no exception, in the Czech Republic. The share of the State budget for culture has been steadily declining to less than 0.5%, although already in 1999 the government programme defined as its goal 1% of the State budget for culture.

            Hidden by the passions that accompany the search for an ideal model of funding culture in the Czech Republic, some remarkable theatre projects emerged. In the field of drama nobody can boast such a number of productions as the producer Vladimír Morávek (* 1965), whose most characteristic trait is a sophisticated structure of quotations and references, often the outcome of drastically abridged texts. Morávek creates scores, in which he replaces things originally expressed in words with images, where music with its assault on emotions plays a significant role. Morávek demands from his actors pronounced expressivity and toys with the contrasts of tragedy and grotesque, pathos and irony, noble and ridiculous. At the end of the 2004/2005 season Morávek left the Klicpera Theatre in Hradec Králové, which under his management became one of the best in the country and joined the Brno theatre Husa na provázku (Goose on a string) as artistic director. He foreshadowed his Brno engagement with the production of three parts of his project „A hundred years of the cobra“, which includes the staging of four novels by F.M.Dostoevsky. The first part, Raskolnikov - his crime and his punishment, had its premiére in December 2003, in January 2004 followed Count Myshkin is an Idiot and then The Demons: Stavrogin is a devil (October 2004); the cycle will end with The Karamazovs reloaded. He said good-bye to the Klicpera Theatre with a number of remarkable productions. The first was Dürrenmatt's The Visit/Der Besuch der alten Dame (March 2004) with Soňa Červená, famous opera singer, in the leading role. In May Morávek producded Smetana's Bartered Bride/Prodaná nevěsta; for the drama ensemble he arranged this Czech national opera as a singspiel with a good deal of comical exaggeration. He stayed with comedy in his staging of Miloš Forman's well-known film Firemen's Ball/Hoří, má panenko (March 2005) and in the production of David Drábek's extravagant tragicomedy Aquabelles/Akvabely (April 2005).

            A remarkable producer is Jan Antonín Pitínský (*1955). Like Morávek he tends to highlight in his productions stage design and music. His poetic expression is more fragile, often bordering on dream-like poetry. At the Brno Divadlo v 7 a půl (Theatre at 7:30) he produced Ibsen's Nora in the atypical space of the entrance hall, at the National Theatre in Prague Ladislav Stroupežnický's Our swaggerers/Naši furianti - a classical Czech comedy. Last but not least he produced at the Slovácké divadlo (Moravian-Slovak theatre) in Uherské Hradiště, one of the smallest regional theatres in the country, the Cunning Little Vixen/Liška Bystrouška. Not, however, Leoš Janáček's famous opera, but the dramatization of Rudolf Těsnohlídek's original story, basis of Janáček's libretto, to which Pitínský added the sub-heading „Stories of blood“. The very special atmosphere of the production is enhanced by the stylized movement of the animal personages, borrowed from the Japanese kiógens.

            Michal Dočekal (*1965) since the 2002/2003 season director of the drama ensemble at the National Theatre in Prague, continued with alternating success in the systematic destruction of conservative ideas about the nature of the foremost Czech theatre. One of the most successful achievements was The Miser/L´Avare (January 2004) in a contemporary framework, without the producer's vision forcefully modifying Moliére's text. Dočekal had a lucky hand with the role of Harpagon, for which he chose Boris Rösner (* 1951), mainly known for his representation of heroes. For his Harpagon Rösner, as the only actor to date, received all three major Czech awards: Alfred Radok's Award and the Sazka and Divadelní noviny (Theatre Journal) Award, the winners chosen by theatre critics, and the Thálie Award of the Actors' Association.

            In our review of the most interesting producers we cannot bypass the solitary visionary Jan Nebeský (* 1949), in turn praised to heaven and damned to hell, who launches with almost fanatical passion into the production of "unstageable" texts. His were the laurels and the prestigious Alfred Radok Award for the best production of 2004 for the "opera for actors" by the Austrian poet and playwright Ernst Jandl From Abroad - Aus der Fremde (October 2004) at the Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade). Our list would not be complete without the first lady of Czech theatre, director Hana Burešová (* 1959), who works as a team with her husband Štěpán Otčenášek, reader at the theatre. Among the "top" productions of recent seasons is Goldoni's The Liar (April 2005) at their home theatre - the Prague Divadlo v Dlouhé (Theatre in Dlouhá Street) and Calderón's Sign of the Cross (September 2005) at Městské divadlo/the Municipal Theatre Brno.

            The dominant position, a slight simplification, of the middle generation in drama is the result of a natural change. This certainly doesn't mean that anybody from the oldest generation deserves attention. Thus Činoherní klub (Drama Club), European theatre star of the 1960s, didn't till now part ways with its founder Ladislav Smoček (*1932), producer and playwright. His production of the Impressario from Smyrna (October 2004) is one of the best comedy productions in recent years. We may say something similar about the Studio Ypsilon, founded by the producer, playwright, actor and painter Jan Schmid (*1936), who in his work resorts to improvisations. He has confirmed his youthful inventiveness in the production of Vintage at Ypsilonka or harvest festival of the operetta (February 2005).

            Alas, Czech opera cannot as yet boast such a new strong generation of artists. We can mention at best some remarkable, but isolated achievements, not infrequently result of co-production with foreign theatres. The world premiere at the National Theatre of the opera Nagano (April 2004) by Martin Smolka, set to a libretto by the composer and Jaroslav Dušek and produced by Ondřej Havelka not only drew considerable attention, but was also a box-office success. The authors presented with ironic exaggeration the victory of the Czech ice-hockey team at the Olympic Games. (Ice hockey is one the most popular sports in the Czech Republic and the victory in Nagano was hailed by thousands of people in the streets.) The foremost achievement at the end of season 2004/5 was the very first production of all four operas of Wagner's The Ring at the National Theatre in cooperation with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldort/Duisburg. The Ring of the Nibelungs, which is being performed there since the 1990s, is the work of conductor John Fiore and of the producers Kurt Horres and Tobias Richter. As a performance the project brought nothing new, it is a conventional approach to opera, but the musical side was of very high quality, especially the orchestra of the National Theatre conducted by John Fiore.

            The most salient feature of the situation in today's opera is that most outstanding productions were invariably the result of co-production with foreign theatres and artists. This was the case of both Jenůfa, which in January 2004 opened the festival Janáček's Brno, and the production of the original version of Bohuslav Martinů's Greek Passion Play (January 2005). The first was a co-production of the Staatsoper from Vienna with the Brno National Theatre, the second one brought to this country the famous joint production of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and of the Bregenzer Festspiele. Both operas were produced by David Pountney.

            The lack of outstanding personalities is to a certain degree outweighed by inventiveness of choice. The somewhat stagnant waters of local opera are to a certain degree disturbed by novelties or (half) forgotten works. Thus the State Opera Prague came with Eugene d'Albert's Lowlands (Tiefland) (September 2003), while the South-Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice presented Bohuslav Martinů's A Day for Charity (Den dobročinnosti), an opera almost unknown in this country. The festival Janáček's Hukvaldy presented exceptionally good productions of E.F.Burián's operas The War (Vojna) and Village fair opera (Opera z pouti), staged at the castle in Hukvaldy by the producer Luděk Golat and the scenographer Jaroslav Malina in the Summer 2003 and 2004.

            Of course, some opera houses maintain high standards of their productions, e.g. the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre in Ostrava. The difference between good and exceptional becomes apparent only with the arrival of a genuine personality. Such a personality is indubitably the producer Jiří Heřman (*1975), who initially trained as an opera singer. He is a truly original artist in the Czech theatre of recent years - he also spent some time as trainee at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. His are highly emotive, scenographically impressive and stylized productions. One of them was Wagner's Flying Dutchman/Der Fliegender Holänder, which he mounted with the conductor Petr Kofroň in January 2004 at the Theatre of J.K.Tyl in Plzeň.

            A change of generations also took place in ballet ensembles. After Petr Zuska, who in 2002 became the new head of the ballet at the National Theatre in Prague, followed the Prague Chamber Ballet (Pavel Ďumbala since 2003) and the ballet ensemble of the Theatre of J.K.Tyl in Plzeň (Jiří Pokorný since 2003). On 1 January 2005 Karel Littera was appointed head of the ballet at the National Theatre in Brno. These changes affected also the structure of programmes - Petr Zuska pays special attention to a contemporary repertoire, the Prague Chamber Ballet under Ďumbala is abandoning original short choreographies and is turning to traditional full-length ballets.

            Zuska attracted considerable attention at his home theatre with the quartet Les bras de Mer (2004) for a male dancer, a female dancer, a table and a chair, with Maria's Dream (2005), a parody-mystification in the form of an erotic dream of the famous romantic ballerina Maria Taglioni and with the participation in the project Balletomania (2005), which offered the possibility to compare the interpretation of one musical piece by three leading Czech choreographers - Zuska, Jiří Kylián and Jan Kodet. Additionally, Zuska staged for the National Theatre in Brno a choreography that worked with symbols D.M.J. 1953-1977 (2004) - the initials refer to Dvořák's, Martinů's and Janáček's music.

            The independent dance groups or rather theatres outside the mainstream are much livelier and more diversified. We find there highly original personalities, for whom the functioning of so-called stone theatres is too restrictive. The new generation approaches the theatre without any prejudices; it is appropriately self-confident, masters new technologies, does not shun social issues and, last but not least, has no problems with finding contacts abroad.

            The choreographer and dancer Jan Kodet, who staged at the Archa Theatre (2004) a trio about burnt-out partnership relations, Lola and Mr.Talk, is known beyond the borders of the Czech Republic, while the Romanian dancer and choreographer Ioana Mona Popovici is one of the most original artists working in the Czech Republic. One her best recent creations is the group choreography Requiem for a Dog, the duo Distant Edens and the solo Chair. Particularly appreciated outside the country is the dance group Déjá Donné (Lenka Flory, Simone Sandroni) - at the Edinburgh Festival in 2003 they received for the performance There Where We Were the "Total Theatre Award".

            The producer Viliam Dočolomanský interpeted brilliantly and in a highly original manner the heritage of Jerzy Grotowski - with his ensemble Farma v jeskyni (Farm in a Cave) he gave life to his second project Sclavi/An émigré's Song/The Song of an Emigrant. With their projects A matter for next year and Personages and Casting the pair Lhotáková&Soukup have entered the social theatre. For their work they choose non-dancing (!) elderly people and they use their personal stories to broach some general topical issue. On the other hand, Petra Bauerová relies in her Nightmare (May 2004) on up-to-date high tech and thanks to the coordinated cooperation of the light designer, sound designer, the dancer and the expert in laser graphics she creates suggestive, magical images.

            The successful and inspiring absorption of unusual production procedures may be seen even in the puppet theatre. It is worth mentioning that the Czech puppet theatre remains, as in the past, a good export product. The productions of the Alpha Theatre from Plzeň, of the Drak (Dragon) Theatre from Hradec Králové and of the Naive Theatre from Liberec are guarantees of good quality. The Prague ensemble Buchty a Loutky (Buns/turnovers and puppets, the name intentionally paraphrases the American legend Bread and Puppet) has gone a step further. It introduced into the puppet theatre certain elements of film editing, work with details and new subjects - on the one hand it produced the Gilgamesh Epic and on the other it entertains the viewers with a parody of the American boxer saga with Sylvester Stallone called Rocky IX (February 2004). The influence of film is unmistakable in a recently founded ensemble - the Theatre Líšeň from Brno. Their somber grotesque Home requiem exploits the tough style of Quentin Tarantino's films. Their latest production Paramisa-Clever stupid Roma is absolutely unique. Not only because of the three-metre-long tin dragon, which dominates the stage, but more particularly because of the participation of a live Roma band and amateur Roma actors. The producer Jakub Krofta created with the puppeteers from DRAK internationally successful productions, their underlying principle a visually stylized movement theatre. It is difficult to classify accurately the puppet shows of the popular ensemble DNO from Hradec Králové, headed by the producer, actor and playwright Jiří Jelínek, or the productions of the producer team Martin Kukučka and Lukáš Trpišovský, called „SKUTR“/"Scooter".

            More successful even abroad are for the most part ensembles and artists working outside the most official mainstream trend in the Czech theatre. With the composer Michal Nejtek and the Swiss librettist Francesco Micieli Jiří Heřman produced Lamenti, a stage madrigal for five human voices and seven musical instruments, in which he mixed music, singing, words, sounds, light and movement to create a magic stage poem. The Teatr Novogo Fronta (New Front Theatre), in whose language we find entwined elements of the Japanese dance butó, of Russian mysticism, of the cabaret and of the modern theatre of movement, received at the Edinburgh Festival for their production Dias de las Noches The Scotsman Fringe First 2004 Award. The Theatre Continuo, originally a puppet theatre, later influenced by the so-called new circus movement, e.g. represented Czech culture in Japan at the EXPO 2005 Aichi; this theatre organizes every year at the turn of July and August a unique international project in the gardens of the stately home Kratochvíle in southern Bohemia. With her Nightmare Petra Hauerová scored at the festival in Buenos Aires. Dušan D.Pařízek, director of the Pražské komorní divadlo (Prague Chamber Theatre), which has its home at the Comedy Theatre, is an outstanding personality not only as producer. In three seasons he created one of the most progressive theatres, which systematically focuses on Czech, Austrian and German drama and its roots, i.e. the modern theatre between the two wars and on works transcending the classical drama theatre. As the first Czech producer ever (!) he was invited to participate in the Salzburger Festspiele, where in August 2005 he presented, in co-production with the Prague Comedy Theatre and the Deutsches Theater Berlin a dramatization of Robert Musil's novel Young Törless (Verwirrugen des Zöglings Törless). It is also worth mentioning that after many lean years Czech drama is once more coming into its own abroad. Petr Zelenka's Stories of an ordinary madness/Příběhy obyčejného šílenství is being produced by theatres in Poland and Hungary; with his play Aquabelles/Akvabely, produced in the Czech Republic by Vladimír Morávek, David Drábek was one of the finalists of the competition Stückemarkt at the Berlin festival Theatertreffen. The well-known Prague theatre On the Balustrade (Na zábradlí) organized a festival called Czechoslovak Spring 2005, of new Czech and Slovak plays written for that theatre,

            A brief selection of international successes forebodes an optimistic future for the Czech theatre. Appreciation of both the public and critics in other countries could help artists, who at home often have to fight for the very survival of their ensembles.

Author Zdeněk Aleš TICHÝ, *1965, theatre critic and publicist graduated theatre and cinematic science at Faculty of Philosophy&Arts of the Charles University, Prague. He worked as an editor in the daily newspapers Lidové noviny and Mladá fronta Dnes. He is also co-author of many publications esp. about contemporary Czech performing arts. Now he works on Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague as a fellow and simultaneously as an editor of revue Bibliotheca, published by Národní knihovna/National Library of the Czech Republic.

On the article devoted to the Czech theatre season 2003-5 collaborated with him also theatre critics and publicists Radmila HRDINOVÁ /for the field of music theatre/, Jana NÁVRATOVÁ /for the field of dance/ and Roman VAŠEK /for the field of ballet/.