MEDIATHEK

Head of the National Theatre Drama Company and director of the play "The Miser". Even during his studies at the gymnasium Michal Dočekal worked as an actor and director in the A-Studio Rubín. 1985 till 1991 he studied directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) where he graduated with productions of Büchner's "Death of Danton" and Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". In the course of his studies he even managed to go on a six-month study visit to London. 1991 till 1994 he was a director of the Caspar Society where he staged for instance "Dońa Juana" (Tirso de Molina adapted by Heřman Bylina). Vostrý's adaption of Goethe's "Clavija", Kleist's "Katynka from Heilbronn" and others. 1994 till 2002 he created - both as director and above all as the artistic director - a new form of the Divadlo Komedie in Prague (Theatre of the Year in 1996, the Alfréd Radok Foundation Award). There he produced Chekhov's "Three Sisters", Shakespeare's "King Lear" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Ostrovsky's "Forest" and others. As a director he has signed productions of several other theatres. He received the Theatre New Award for creative initiative in drama in 2001 (Marlowe: The tragical History of Doctor Faustus). He collaborated with the National Theatre Drama Company even before: in 1994 he produced Joyce's "Exiles" at the Kolowrat Theatre, in 1998 Beckett's "Happy Days". Since 2002 he has been at the National Theatre as the head of the Drama Company and as a director. He introduced himself with a production of Rostand's Dyrano de Bergerac (October 2002), and other plays have followed: Kane's "Psychoses in 4.48", Mastrosimone's "Like Totally Weird". He was a director of the joint project of the Opera and Drama Company of the National Theatre - Beckett / Mihalovici: Krapp's Last Tape and Moličre's Miser. For the project, The Shack No. 2, he has staged Klimáček's drama "Hypermarket".

A symptomatic change of Molièreian comic type is now completed in Dočekal's production by Boris Rösner, the interpreter of heroic characters, definitely no comedian by disposition and vocation. As with his earlier Malvolio, the choice has been shown to be good. The more serious an actor is in Harpagon's stubborn destiny, the more fiercely and fanatically he acts to protect his wealth, the more absolutely and unintentionally comical his laborious and at last useless endeavour seems to be.
(by Zdenĕk Hořinek, Theatre News)

Source:
12th International Festival Theatre Pilsen Booklet (Printed Edition)