According to one of the organisers Pavel Štorka, the festival has never featured so many premiers as this year. From the Czech performances, let’s name the hottest one - the last piece written and directed by Jiří Havelka for the theatre ensemble Vosto5. It is called Pérák, and aims to bring back to life the legend of Pérák, the only Czech superhero named after his unusual spring shoes that enabled him to make fantastic jumps and quickly move from one action to the next.
“Pérák is the main character of the legend that was spread in the Czech Republic during Nazi occupation. This Czech superhero provided emotional support to Czech people who were scared and suffered a loss of faith in their ability to defend themselves. Therefore they were in desperate need of superhero,” explain authors of the performance led by Jiří Havelka, who incorporated elements of new cirques, martial arts, poetics of authors’ theatre, comics as well as wordplay humour into the pieces.
Other premiers
The Boca Loca Lab ensemble led by director Jiří Adámek prepared an interesting performance named Fire that will take audience back in time in the 20s and 30s. Ensemble Handa Gote Research & Development will present their new project Clouds in which choreographer and dancer Veronika Švábová sifts through her family history looking for important moments and seeming trivia. NANOHACH ensemble will present Prague’s premiere of the Suna No Onna (sand-woman) performance.
From the foreign projects we can look forward for example to the performance Before Your Very Eyes by the famous German and British ensemble. The main protagonists of the piece, which will be staged in Theatre Archa, are the children between 8 and 14 who make many witty comments on the life of adults and their future plans. Theatre Archa will also see the performance The Society presented by dancers and actors from the Nordic ensemble Jo Strømgren Kompani.
Charm of theatre experiments
Another unique experience is undoubtedly going to be the Brazilian show Cyborg Manifesto by director Joelson Gusson – a star of Brazilian experimental theatre. The play turns on its head the cult of beauty that rules not only in Brazil, a country considered a kingdom of plastic surgery. Czech and Italian ensemble Deja Donne will showcase Czech premiere of its dance project. Project Haircuts by Children is an interesting experiment by the famous Canadian ensemble Mammalian Diving Reflex. If you come to see it, you can literary have your hair cut.
Projects tailor-made for Prague
Apart from the events staged in established premises of Theatre Archa, Studio Alta, Theatre Alfred ve dvoře and at MeetFactory, the festival will feature site specific projects – performances made to fit the ambience of some forgotten places in Prague. “Visitors will no doubt enjoy excursions to Barrandov and Vršovice industrial buildings, street games, culture symposiums, lectures on Ararat and Botič, saucy video art and the final happening held at the football stadium Bohemians,“ said Pavel Štorek.
All ensembles that will appear at the festival share originality, openness and honesty. The tickets to Theatre Archa can be purchased in its box-office for the price between CZK 200 and 290. Tickets to other events can be purchased directly at the place where an event is held. Students and seniors will enjoy discounts. The festival pass that enables visits of Theatre Archa, Theatre Alfred ve dvoře and Studio Alta can be purchased via www.ctyridny.cz for CZK 700, or CZK 400.
