MEDIATHEK

Love and Money – This cruel comedy by contemporary British playwright Dennis Kelly is about love in its many forms. It consists of several stories that overlap in a sophisticated manner. On top of that, the action takes place backwards. Jess is a shopaholic who is also interested in Buddhism. David pays off Jess’ huge debts, but would like to buy himself a new Audi. In the end he finds a way of getting out of an unpleasant situation… An elderly couple cannot stand looking at an ostentatious monument to immigrants which overshadows their daughter’s grave, and in the end they take justice into their own hands… The world of Kelly’s play is full of confused and wounded people, clumsily trying to pretend that everything is absolutely fine. However, the harder they try to be normal, the madder they become. Kelly’s plays are often described as dark and brutal, full of people who hurt each other. Kelly disagrees – the people in his stories may hurt each other, he says, but they really don’t mean to. A subtle but very important difference, and one that give his plays knife-sharp humour and moments of great poetry.

Reviews:
Manipulating others and manipulating one’s own consciousness and conscience is typical of all the characters. They all want new things and money. Even if they don’t admit it. Their desire to own is stronger than love. And it leads to spiritual crippledom, suicide and murder. The fluctuating distance between the actors and their characters, and their oscillation between “reporting” and “embodying” means the viewer watches the moral devastation as if through a movable zoom lense. And sometimes the compelling and masterful performances bring him in terrifyingly close.

Bronislav Pražan, Týdeník Rozhlas


Director Jan Mikulášek and artist Marek Cpin respect he specificity of the dramatic method and situate the fragmented action in a single, stylistically-clean space. The background is dominated by large photographs of the eight actors. The aesthetics of the static environment, together with a corresponding number of simple chairs, contrasts, however, with the surprisingly large supply of versatile dramatic resources on which the actors draw.

Zdeněk Hořínek, Divadelní noviny


Mikulášek’s production highlights dysfunctional human relationships, the inability to communicate and the abandonment of any attempt to find a common communicative code. The audience finds little in the way of dynamic action. The strength of the information lies in the word, the situations are unclear, the figures unspecific. No real conversation takes place. Dialogue between partners falls apart into sequences that are more or less monologues, in which contact with the other partner is made by means of deformed diction and hysterical aggressive attacks that meet with no reply.

Dominika Šindelková, Rozrazil


…the production is a peculiar experience, in which the individual actors’ performances are as compelling as the original stage form, which touches the painful moments of the life of society and of every one of us.

Jana Soprová, Český rozhlas 3 – Mozaika

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