MEDIATHEK

Here they are again. Arrogant brats who think the world belongs to them. Greed, immortality, vaingloriousness and vanity. Four moments that apparently made it all worthwhile. Crunch. Lovers you'd rather kill. In Anna Petrželková's producton, today's Romeos and Juliets live in bars in Stodolní street, smoke weed and reject their parents' world. That does not mean they have no ability to love. (Festival Divadlo)

"This play from approximately 1596, in which the author enters the middle period of his work, is a tragedy of love destroyed by an environment of inveterate hatred. The central dramatic conflict, which on various levels displays itself as a conflict between young and old, emotion and reason, inexorable fate and freedom of choice, culminates in a lesson on human incorrigibility, which in an unequal struggle can only be resisted by the love of two young people as the highest value of all," translator Jiří Josek has written of Shakespeare's play. Anna Petrželková's adaptation is radical and fearless. The housing estate, noise, band music and costumes made out of television blankets create, from this eternally-valid, age-old text, a concrete story with an utterly contemporary subtext and today's problems.



// CREDITS //

DIRECTION: Anna Petrželková

TRANSLATION: Jiří Josek

DRAMATURGY: Zuzana Dzurindová

SET: Lucie Labajová

COSTUMES: Lenka Odvárková

MUSIC: Mario Buzzi

CAST:

Prince Escalus - Sylvie Krupanská

Paris, Montague - Dušan Urban

Capulet - Jan Vápeník

Romeo - Michal Sedláček

Mercutio - Tomáš Dastlík

Benvolio - Lukáš Melník

Tybalt - Jan Vlas

Friar Laurence - Přemysl Bureš

Lady Capulet - Tereza Vilišová

Juliet - Pavla Gajdošíková

Juliet's nurse - Norbert Lichý

Lady Montague - Kateřina Krejčí

Premiere 18 March 2011

The performance lasts 2 hours 45 minutes with interval



// AUTHOR //

Anna Petrželková (b. 1984) – One of the notable directorial talents of Czech and Slovak theatre. She studied theatre direction at the VŠMU in Bratislava in Peter Mikulik's year, graduating with productions of Hedda Gabler and Casablanca (between the vultures). While a student she worked as an intern in the Farm in the Cave theatre studio.

She has worked in Czech and Slovak professional theatres, with productions including Embers at 7 and a Half Theatre in Brno, Kazimir and Karolina at the City Theatre, Žilina, Dangerous Liaisons in Zlín, Nora at the State Theatre, Košice, Itching at Prague's A Studio Rubin, Marx Bros at Brno's HaDivadlo, Cleansed at the Theatre Na cucky in Olomouc, The Cenci at the National Theatre of Moravia-Silesia and Manon Lescaut at the Polárka Theatre. Nora won her a nomination for directorial discovery of the year at the Dosky Slovak theatre awards.

Petr Bezruč Theatre – A studio theatre with an emphasis on non-traditional directorial approaches, contemporary texts and young audiences. The dramaturgy revolves around dramatisations, adaptations of films and current drama. This concept was shaped both by earlier artistic heads (Janusz Klimsza, Jan Mikulášek) and the current head, Martin Františák. Today the theatre attempts to respond to the problems of the specific place in which it is located – an industrial agglomeration on the boundary of three states – and be inspired by them. In addition to classics and titles for children, the theatre also shows Czech and world premieres of current plays, and unusual, controversial dramatic texts.



// PRESS //

The result is lively, pulsating and notably entertaining theatre, which in addition to a penetrating understanding of a remarkable text in a rigorous translation, is also built, naturally on the actors' performances. Recent conservatory graduates Michal Sedláček and Pavla Gajdošíková are suitably appealing and suitably childish, Norbert Lichý as the Nurse is both sufficiently maternal and adroit, while Tereza Vilišová and Jan Vápeník, in a small space, are polished as the Capulet parents. It is heartening to once again see consummate theatre that does not grope in the dark, but knows exactly what it wants to say and how to say it.
Vojtěch Varyš, Týden

Once again, the Bezruč Theatre does not disappoint. There will certainly be passionate debates regarding its most recent production of Romeo and Juliet between both laymen and experts, but neither those for it nor those against it will forget Anna Petrželková's directorial work in this case for years to come, which is not a bad thing.
lvs, www.moravskoslezskydenik.cz



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