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Resurrection If this story about love and doubt really did take place in the way it is described, then it would be the most incredible story its protagonists had ever experienced… What is the probability that it might actually have taken place? Could it happen in real life? Is it really just an absurd coincidence that took place at a certain time in a certain place, or is what we see as coincidence in actual fact deliberate, and there is no such thing as coincidence? How should we perceive the various signs that appear in our lives?

This dramatisation of short stories by an unknown author appears under the name Daniel Doubt. His surname is not unknown to loyal fans of the DD. Those who follow the DD systematically will rightly notice that the play was created for the Dejvické divadlo, as is the custom in the Doubt family. This time, however, it was not a purely collective improvisation, but work with a more or less ready text by a mysterious author.

// Credits //

Direction: Michal Vajdička
Set: Pavol Andraško
Costumes: Katarína Hollá
Music: Václav Havelka a Martin Tvrdý
Dramaturgy: Eva Suková

Cast:
Andrew Maxwell, a writer: Ivan Trojan
Ben Bishop, director of a publishing house: Václav Neužil
Annie Fletcherová, an editor: Martha Issová
Leon Carhartt, doorman at the publishing house: Hynek Čermák
Christine, Leon Carhartt’s neighbour: Jana Holcová
Samuel Goldwyn. Schindler, an unsuccessful writer: Matěj Hádek / Vladimír Polívka
Cyril Blind, a psychiatrist: Pavel Šimčík
Lenny Blindová, Cyril Blind’s wife: Zdeňka Žádníková

Premiere: 12th and 15th June 2016

// Author //

Michal Vajdička (1976) Graduated in direction from VŠMU in Bratislava in 2005, but from 1993 had been working as a lighting designer in the Slovak National Theatre and the Bratislava Dance Theatre. He has worked with distinguished Slovak theatres and figures (Sherhaufer, Polák, Mikulík, Ľ. Vajdička and others). The first play he directed at VŠMU, McDonagh’s The Lonesome West, gained a number of awards. Since graduating from his master’s programme Vajdička has continued there in a teaching role. He works with many Slovak theatres (the Slovak National Theatre, Divadlo Astorka, Košice State Theatre, Andrej Bagár Theatre Nitra and others). He also directs from time to time at VŠMU, with his Midsummer Night’s Dream winning two awards at the international festival Encounter 2011 – for best female actress and set design. A number of his other productions have won significant theatre awards or have been nominated for them, including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Portia Coughlan, All for the Nation and Dead Souls. His production of The Kindly Ones, a dramatisation by Daniel Majling of Jonathan Littells’s novel, at the Slovak National Theatre, gained DOSKY awards in 2014 in three categories (best production, best direction and best male performance). Michal Vajdička also works regularly in the Czech Republic (National Theatre, Brno, Vinohrady Theatre, J.K. Tyl Theatre, Pilsen). Czech audiences have thus been able to see his productions of Anthony and Cleopatra and An Eye for an Eye, which he has directed for the Summer Shakespeare Festival. His production for the summer stage in Prague Castle this year is Hamlet. Michal Vajdička has worked with the Dejvické divadlo from 2011 (A Blockage in the System, The Seagull, Resurrection) and from 2014-2016 was its artistic head. A Blockage in the System won the Alfréd Radok Award for production of the year in 2012.

// Dejvice Theatre //

Dejvice Theatre Founded in 1992. Following the departure of the original company, headed by Jan Borna, its artistic head from 1996 to the end of the 2013/14 season was director Miroslav Krobot. From 2014-2016 the artistic head was Michal Vajdička, who had been working with the theatre from 2011 as director of the production A Blockage in the System. Since January 2017 the new artistic head has been Martin Myšička, a member of the theatre’s company since 1997. The theatre’s dramaturgy goes in several directions. As well as showing original plays by contemporary European and world authors, the theatre focuses on works by distinguished Czech and Slovak playwrights who write their work directly for the DD’s company, and in most cases also participate in directing it (J. A. Pitínský, Miroslav Krobot, Petr Zelenka, Jiří Havelka, Karel František Tománek, Viliam Klimáček, Petra Tejnorová, Daniel Majling and others). A further significant component of the dramaturgy is singular interpretations of world classics. During its existence the Dejvické divadlo has five times been declared Theatre of the Year, with further significant awards being won both by productions and the the theatre’s individual actors. In 2017 the Dejvické divadlo celebrates 25 years since its foundation.

// Press //

… this is a top-class production, the theatre’s best since The Seagull (also directed by Vajdička). A brilliantly-written play, full of paradoxes in which everything turns into its opposite several times, flamboyantly bizarre plot twists, discreetly precise direction and virtuoso acting. The way in which the cards are dealt in the first half is exceptionally amusing; after the interval, however, the play gently touches on more serious themes. At stake is Love and the existence of God – by the end, quite seriously at stake, and yet it does not hurt at all. There are many bonus references to Chekhov and Woody Allen, who seem to fulfil the role here of some kind of godfathers. Yes, this is a safe bet, but at the end of the day you’ll have difficulty finding such well-written and played theatre anywhere else in the country. Virtuosity always carries with it the risk of navel-gazing purposelessness, but it is always a joy to watch people who really know what they are doing…
- Vladimír Mikulka, http://nadivadlo.blogspot.cz/

…In a single sentence, I see this Resurrection as a touching farce about the search for love as proof of God’s existence. And it is a miracle that it was born, as it were, of the foam of the days and theatre rehearsals…
- Richard Erml, Reflex

Ivan Trojan, in the role of Andrew Maxwell, won the Divadelní noviny award for performance of the season regardless of genre, while Resurrection gained two nominations for the Theatre Critics‘ Award, in the Production of the Year and Best New Czech Play categories.

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