SAD 2/2024
Contexts, Power Struggles and Trigger Warning
discussion of Jakub Škorpil, Vladimír Mikulka, Josef Chuchma, Daniela Samsonová, Barbora Schneiderová and Štěpán Truhlařík about Marek Šindelka’s Feminist
It’s Not That the Things Cannot Be Changed But It Is Only Very Eeasy Not To Do So
Jitka Šotkovská’s interview with Jaroslav Jurečka, dramatic adviser of Feminist
Vladimír Mikulka
From Spies to Salvation of the Budvar Brewery
repertoire of South Bohemian Theatre České Budějovice in 2023
Kateřina Lesch
Adaptation, Authenticity, Actualisation
three dramaturgical approaches at Prague Municipal Theatres
Natálie Bulvasová
Baroque for the 21st Century
three productions of Geisslers Hofcomoedianten
Eliška Hankovcová
A Poetic Probe into the Retreat of Lonely Souls
two performances by David Šiktanc
Vít Kořínek
The Other Side of Laughter
classical comedies at Comédii-Française
Our Job is to Be a Mediators
Jakuba Škorpil’s interview with Michal Kotrouš, translator and employee of Aura-Pont Agency
MAREK ŠINDELKA: THE FEMINIST
DAVID ŠIKTANC AND COMP.: DINING CAR
In this issue we publish two additional texts nominated in the critical survey for the Best Play 2023 Award: The Feminist by Marek Šindelka and David Šiktanc’s Dining Car. The former deals with themes of sexual harassment and a toxic ambience at a university and has aroused significant controversy following its presentation at the National Theatre Brno. It was rejected particularly by younger critics although objections tended to concern things only loosely connected to the text itself and were related more to phenomena of “cultural wars” or generational conflict. This debate is also reflected in the opening section of the issue, which includes both an interview with production’s dramatic adviser Jaroslav Jurečka (“It’s Not That the Things Cannot Be Changed But It Is Only Very Easy Not to Do So”) and a wide-ranging discussion by the Svět a divadlo (World and Theatre) editors Jakub Škorpil and Vladimír Mikulka, literary critic and journalist Josef Chuchma, Daniela Samsonová and Barbora Schneiderová from the theatre podcast A Glass of Wine and an Open Sandwich, and critic Štěpán Truhlařík. David Šiktanc’s play is complemented with Eliška Hankovcová’s review “A Poetic Probe into the Retreat of Lonely Souls”. She writes about productions of Dining Car and of another, this time distinctively autobiographical, work by Šiktanc, Insomnia, performed at the Činoherní studio Ústí nad Labem. The series of this year dedicated to translations and translators also starts in this issue – it begins with an interview with Michal Kotrouš who focuses on the workings of theatre and literary agencies (“Our Job is to be a Mediator”). In the review section Vladimír Mikulka looks back at the repertoire of the South Bohemian Theatre České Budějovice (“From Spies to Salvation of the Budvar Brewery”), particularly an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel The Innocent (directed by Adam Steinbauer), The Author by Ella Hickson (directed by Adam Svozil), Leni by Valéria Schulczová and Roman Olekšák (directed by Radovan Lipus), Smoček’s Strange Afternoon of Dr Zvonek Burke (directed by Janusz Klimsza) and The Great Water Robbery by Tereza Verecká, directed by Zuzana Burianová. In her essay “Adaptation, Authenticity, Actualisation” Kateřina Lesch deals with the dramaturgical aspects of three productions in the Prague Municipal Theatres: an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel My Brilliant Friend, directed by Marián Amsler, McDonagh’s Pillowman directed by Tomáš Ráliš, and “a site specific” production of Arnold Wesker’s Kitchen directed by Michal Dočekal. Natálie Bulvasová’s essay “Baroque for the 21st Century” looks at three productions by the ensemble Geisslers Hofcomedianten – “a baroque musical” Poodle and Powder, which is based on the fates of twenty-seven Czech nobles executed in the aftermath of the Battle of White Mountain, and Simply Simplicius or My Goodness!, an adaptation of the novel by Hans von Grimmelshausen. The only reflection on theatre abroad is Vít Kořínek’s comprehensive review “The Other Side of Laughter”, dealing with contemporary productions of classical comedies at the Parisian Comédie-Française, particularly Feydeau’s comedy A Flea in Her Ear and Molière’s The Miser directed by Lilo Baur, Tartuffe directed by Ivo van Hove, and Marivaux’s Le Petit-Maître corrigé directed by Clément Hervieu-Léger.
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