MEDIATHEK

Sekal Must Die - The year is 1943. The young blacksmith Jura Baran arrives secretly in a village in the Haná region. He has no wife, no children - he seems to have come there to hide. It is an evil time, however, and some people know how to make use of it. Sekal knows the weak points of all the local farmers, and in an atmosphere of fear he blackmails them mercilessly. With Baran's arrival, however, they gain a trump card and decide to play it. Jiří Křížan wrote this big, raw drama as the script for Vladimír Michálek's film, which won eleven Czech Lion awards. A drama about injury, pain, the evil in the hearts of men, and about human and divine justice.

About the director of the play "Sekal Must Die": Natália Deáková (1981) – Graduated in theatre direction from the drama faculty of DAMU. In January 2005 she became the artistic head of the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem. After taking maternity leave, she returned as an in-house director in 2008 – 2011. She has also guest directed in Prague (Švanda Theatre, Vinohrady Theatre), in Hradec Králové (Klicpera Theatre), Brno (National Theatre Brno) and elsewhere. In January 2012 she joined Czech Radio as a director of drama and literary programmes. From the 2013/4 season she will be the artistic head of the J.K. Tyl Theatre’s drama company.

Reviews:
The horror of the Nazi occupation, rural boorishness and cowardice, religious prejudice and also tolerance, the triumph of a humiliated out-of-wedlock bastard, undertones of Franco’s killing in Spain, and the ballads of the Partisans create a whole that is rooted in the absoluteness of ancient Greek tragedies. In order to capture all this, the theatre adaptation has had to give up some of the psychological insights. Even then, however, the rawness and brutality of the theme have a powerful effect.

Viktor Viktora, Plzeňský deník


It is never easy to transpose stories from the silver screen into the world of theatre. It is good that producers are not put off by the difficulties involved, and set off on to this thin ice. The new Pilsen production of Sekal Must Die, directed by Natálie Deáková, is the best proof of this. It gets right under the audience’s skin, it is chilling, naturalistic, raw and brutal. And truly, emotionally tense. Superbly acted, evocatively staged and deeply, crushingly convincing. (…) Sekal Must Die is a production that you will take a long time to get over. You will leave agitated, shaken maybe. And this is why it is worth seeing. It is a play that tells us about ourselves.

Gabriela Špalková, MF DNES

Powered by Froala Editor