{"id":592,"date":"2024-12-04T18:56:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T18:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/30\/?p=592"},"modified":"2024-12-09T16:41:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T16:41:23","slug":"divadlo-in-dialogue-with-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/30\/divadlo-in-dialogue-with-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Divadlo in Dialogue with Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matti Linnavuori<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

32nd edition of Divadlo (Theatre) festival in Pilsen, Czech Republic, 11 to 19 September 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The selection at Pilsen\u2019s Divadlo festival has in recent years become quite thrilling. Instead of isolated masterpieces\u2014when available\u2014the program now presents pairs of productions, which complement each other\u2019s argument. Either that, or my perception has become more refined, and if so, I owe it to my constant exposure to Divadlo\u2019s offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Themes for the 2024 edition were French thinkers, family discrepancies, Euripides, abuse of the weak, motherhood, Thomas Bernhard, the end of the world. What was perhaps less visible than in previous years is Czech folklore.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Actors gather for the first read-through of Euripides\u2019 Hecuba<\/em> in the Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise production of Hecuba, Not Hecuba<\/em>. Photo: Christophe Raynaud de Lage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thus the opening show Hecuba, Not Hecuba<\/em> by the Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise showed the consequences of abuse of autistic children in a state-run institution, and the closing show from Poland, How I Didn\u2019t Kill My Father and How Much I Regret It <\/em>discussed the need for euthanasia for those in severe pain and beyond medical help.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Young Hilde (M\u00e1ria Szaplonzay) arrives to demand that Solness (P\u00e1l M\u00e1csai) build her a castle in \u00d6rkeny Theatre\u2019s Solness<\/em>. Photo: Judit Horvath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thus the Hungarian playwright Kata Weber\u2019s Pieces of a Woman<\/em> by the Czech company from the town of Ostrava demonstrated how secrets revealed too late will ruin not only family relationships but also family finances. Thus Henrik Ibsen\u2019s Solness<\/em> from Budapest\u2019s \u00d6rk\u00e9ny Theatre reinterpreted the 1892 classic from a #metoo perspective, but also threw some characters overboard never to be heard of again, just as ruthlessly as its main man Solness. For more on the impressive composure of Solness<\/em> actors see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue with Bernhard<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

And then there was the overwhelming Dog on the Road<\/em>, based on Pavel Vilikovsky\u2019s novel from 2010, dramatized and directed by Du\u0161an D. Pa\u0159izek!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Iks Ypsilon (Robert Roth) creates his Slovak mindscape with an overhead projector in Dog on the Road<\/em>. Photo: Robert Tappert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Slovak writer Vilikovsky (1941\u20132020) makes serious fun of the complexes of a small nation. Being Finnish, I fully relate to Slovaks introducing themselves with words borrowed from Alcoholics Anonymous: \u201cMy name is XY (Iks Ypsilon) and I am a Slovak.\u201d I identify with the ever-present national shame so hilariously and touchingly portrayed by the four male actors of the Slovak National Theatre, even though I cannot remember them using any other means of expression than roaring at full blast for two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XY understands his scribblings will never equal those of his idol, Thomas Bernhard from neighboring Austria. To punish himself for this fatal flaw, where else would he travel than to Austria, expecting\u2014and hoping\u2014to be humiliated. Instead, this anecdotal travelogue arranges for him to meet an Austrian woman, played by the bearded, bald actor Lubo\u0161 Kosteln\u00fd.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Their Austrian adventure seems to adorn the four Slovaks in Dog on the Road<\/em> (L\u2013R Alexander B\u00e1rta, Robert Roth, Lubo\u0161 Kosteln\u00fd, Richard Stanke). Photo: Robert Tappert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Director Pa\u0159izek also designed the set, which consists of three overhead projectors at the sides. Their clumsy and simple projections on the paper curtains at the back serve to highlight the poorness of poor theatre in \u201cSlovak\u201d style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue with Past Productions<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Divadlo program also discusses productions seen in recent years. French thinkers seem to be a recurring theme. In 2023, it was Didier Eribon, now Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy\u2019s joint book of letters Public Enemies<\/em> (2008 for the French original).<\/p>\n\n\n

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The opening scene of Public Enemies<\/em>: Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy (V\u00e1clav Va\u0161\u00e1k, right) watches Michel Houellebecq (Miloslav K\u00f6nig) come out of their tent. Photo: KIVA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Prague\u2019s Theatre on the Balustrade usually provides most memorable, aesthetically dazzling-disturbing theatrical experiences, particularly when directed by Jan Mikul\u00e1\u0161ek and dramatized by Dora \u0160t\u011bdro\u0148ov\u00e1. Public Enemies<\/em> begins so gorgeously that it just cannot top the opening scene. In Dragan Stoj\u010devski\u2019s set, there is a tent in the woods, Levy (V\u00e1clav Va\u0161\u00e1k) stands in front of it, and Houellebecq\u2019s (Miloslav K\u00f6nig) hand juts out of the tent, knocking ash off his cigarette. Then, Houellebecq gets to his feet, knocks on the wall of the forest. A door opens, and the forest hands him an ashtray.<\/p>\n\n\n

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French thinkers visit Moscow. Public Enemies<\/em> has a neat way of demonstrating just how profound their understanding of Russia really is. Miloslav K\u00f6nig (left) and V\u00e1clav Va\u0161\u00e1k). Photo: KIVA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Frenchmen proclaim views on important matters in surprising tones. They say they wish to be loved not in spite of their faults but because of them. Here I find the actors too skillful and charming to believe in their inner ugliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Euripides\u2019 Trojan Women<\/em> was seen in Pilsen in 2023 (https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/28\/resurrection-of-vaclav-havels-theatre-and-erotic-dreams-in-pilsen\/). Now we have a version of his Hecuba<\/em>. The Portuguese director of the Avignon Festival, Tiago Rodrigues, wrote and directed Hecuba, Not Hecuba<\/em> for the Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise. The Pilsen show was its indoor premiere after several open air performances.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The actress (Elsa Lepoivre) pulls herself together during the prosecutor\u2019s (Denis Podalyd\u00e8s) questioning in Hecuba, Not Hecuba<\/em>. Photo: Christophe Raynaud de Lage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A theatre company has come together for the first read-through of Euripides\u2019 Hecuba<\/em>. Elsa Lepoivre prepares for the role of Hecuba. At the same time, she prepares to be heard by a public prosecutor about abuse in an institution where her autistic son Otis has been sectioned. The two storylines gradually merge, and so do characters: Hecuba\u2019s lines burst forth in the prosecutor\u2019s hearings, and the actress\u2019 parental concerns overtake moments designated for theatre rehearsals. The Agamemnon of the play (Denis Podalyd\u00e8s) shifts into the prosecutor and back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get to know Otis only from his mother\u2019s words. Otis likes\u2014besides Otis Redding\u2019s music\u2014a reality television show, which follows a stray dog in search of we-don\u2019t-know-what (the ever-elusive justice, it turns out).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late into the show, the actors pull away a cloth, which has covered the dominant piece of Fernando Ribeiro\u2019s set; it turns out to be a huge statue of a dog, three-legged just like the dog on television. Only now do I understand that Hecuba\u2019s slaughtered son has been on the stage all this time, as a paw severed from the dog\u2019s body. The superbly orchestrated production distrusts my capacity for understanding and gives the main actress a final speech where she explains the connection between Otis and the dog. Is there an added benefit in admiring how skillful the actress is? Certainly the subtext gets hammered home.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The statue of the dog revealed in Hecuba, Not Hecuba<\/em>. Photo: Christophe Raynaud de Lage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The mother is compelled to repeat her story of Otis\u2019 abuse numerous times at the prosecutor\u2019s, which evokes the type and amount of repetition in theatre rehearsals; very clever and enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival\u2019s closing show, How I Didn\u2019t Kill My Father and How Much I Regret It <\/em>is a joint effort from Polish theatres from Cracow and Kielce. Mateuz Paku\u0142a directed his own adaptation of his book of prose (2021). It is a diary about the artist watching his father die slowly and painfully from an incurable illness.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Justyna Elminowska\u2019s set for How I Didn\u2019t Kill My Father and How Much I Regret It <\/em>evokes an aquapark; the dying man, an architect, planned them. To me, the set suggests a sewer, because the harbingers of bad tidings appear from there. Photo: Klaudyna Schubert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There is plenty of text, more than enough to keep my eyes on the surtitles rather than the somewhat static activity on stage. Such grave subject matter presses for an emotionally charged reaction, which I cannot provide. I found the main character far more interested in his own emotional jerks than in concrete deeds to alleviate his father\u2019s plight. I dare moralize this much because I have been in a similar situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogues with the North and the East<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Kata Weber\u2019s Pieces of a Woman<\/em> premiered in Warsaw, Poland, in 2018 and is known as an American feature film from 2020. Both versions were directed by Korn\u00e9l Mundrucz\u00f3. Their works are frequent guests at Divadlo, too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lars (Mari\u00e1n Chal\u00e1ny, right) tries to finance his drug addiction by hitting on a family friend, the lawyer Zuzana (Mark\u00e9ta Harokov\u00e1) in Pieces of a Woman<\/em>. Photo: Martin \u0160pelda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2024, we were shown Jan Holec\u2019s production from Ostrava\u2019s Petr Bezru\u010d Theatre. It begins with a forty-minute film, where Maja (Alexandra Palat\u00ednusov\u00e1) gives birth at home, while her husband Lars (Mari\u00e1n Chal\u00e1ny) keeps dashing about. After the intermission, it is live theatre at Maja\u2019s mother\u2019s, where family members struggle not to insult each other but inevitably end up doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the American film, Lars\u2019 name is Sean, but in the play he is Norwegian. By a crude association, his name reminds me of the Swedish playwright Lars Nor\u00e9n, not least because Weber\u2019s text bears a kinship to Nor\u00e9n\u2019s early 1980s family dramas. With Weber, the opportunity to vent one\u2019s frustration is more evenly distributed among the characters than with the somewhat egocentric Nor\u00e9n. And the main characters now are educated women, not an anguished youth. Curiously though, the four women are kept busy performing all the housework, while the two men sit, gossip and drink\u2014not really how I picture a Scandinavian division of chores.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Krist\u00fdna Frankov\u00e1 (left) as V\u011bra \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1. At the other end of the television sets, her Soviet rival (Martina J. Hartmannov\u00e1). Photo: Filip Nekola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pilsen\u2019s own Alfa Theatre showed an hour-long puppet performance \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1\u2013Tokyo\u20131964<\/em>. A cast of Czech and Japanese actor-puppeteers tell the story of the Czechoslovak gymnast V\u011bra \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1 at the Tokyo Olympic games, where she won the gold medal against fierce competition from her Soviet rival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author Tom\u00e1\u0161 Jarkovsk\u00fd and the director Jakub Va\u0161\u00ed\u010dek have worked as an artistic team ever since their student years. Their show is technically versatile. At the sides of the stage sit two television commentators, one Czech, the other Japanese. They translate each other\u2019s speeches, which slows down the show, but then again gives emphasis to the mystical moment when \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1 meets an old man on a mountain and understands his instructions\u2014in Japanese\u2014for winning through joy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Puppeteers (L\u2013R Haruhi Shoji, Mamika Kawajiry, Martina J. Hartmannov\u00e1) prepare the wise old man to give V\u011bra \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1 valuable advice. Photo: Filip Nekola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Kamil B\u011blohv\u00e1lek\u2019s set is a row of tiny television sets, which have curtains; it is endearing to follow the gymnast\u2019s moves through the row of sets. This innocence recreates the era when television\u2019s grip on the Olympics began. In the gymnast\u2019s winning program, movement is created by actors\u2019 handheld lights twirling on the body of a still puppet, and this looks truly acrobatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show concentrates on Tokyo. Later in life, \u010c\u00e1slavsk\u00e1 (1942\u20132016) repeated her gold medal feat in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. At this time, she expressed her support for the Prague Spring and fell into disfavor. During V\u00e1clav Havel\u2019s presidency 1993\u20132003, she became an advisor to the president and travelled with him to Japan on a state visit. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Matti Linnavuori<\/strong> wrote theatre criticism between 1978 and 2013 for various newspapers and weeklies in his native Finland. In 1985, he worked for the BBC World Service in London. Since 1998, he has presented papers at numerous IATC events. In the 2000s, he wrote for Teatra Vestnesis in Latvia. Since 1993, he has written and directed several radio plays for YLE the Finnish Broadcasting Company. His latest stage play, Ta mig till er ledare<\/em> (Take Me to Your Leader<\/em>, 2016), ran at Lilla Teatern in Helsinki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2024 Matti Linnavuori
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>, #30, Dec. 2024
e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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