Four Years after the Floods – Musical Theatre Karlín Has a New Image

The Musical Theatre Karlín was one of the theatres that was destroyed by the catastrophic floods that swept through the Czech Republic, leaving hundreds of people without homes and many theatres without a space to perform in.

Josef Novotný and Jan Měšťan worked for five months on the repairs to the historical theatre curtain created by Hungarian artist Viktor Tardosse Krenner that dates back to the end of the 19^th century. To accommodate the size of the curtain (8.3 m X 12.8 m), they relocated their ateliers to the tennis halls located in Zbraslav, a district of Prague, where they were able to use the hot summer weather conditions to speed up the final details of their work. The temperatures the sometimes reached 50 degrees Celsius and the lighting conditions of the space provided the restorers with excellent conditions for their work.

The completion of the repair work to the theatre space should take place between September 19 and 26, 2006. The historical interiors will be complemented with crystal chandeliers, new carpeting, and a new lighting system in the auditorium. The theatre has also acquired a new façade – from its traditional pink, the colours of the theatre building will return to their original light green.

The building was expected to be reconstructed, but the floods that swept through Prague speeded up the entire reconstruction process. The building is a protected monument (built in 1881) and water reached a height of seven metres in the theatre spaces. Intense repairs commenced last year, and the cost of the entire reconstruction is estimated at 630 million koruna (22.5 million Euro).

The Musical Theatre Karlín still continued to present musicals at the Palace of Culture in Prague, but will return to their home stages on October 12^th and 13^th for the Czech premiere performances of “The Producers”, directed by Antonín Procházka.

More information (in Czech): www.hdk.cz