MEDIATHEK

The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas – The graduation production of students from the 4th year of the acting department and 5th year of the department of directing and dramaturgy of the DAMU theatre school’s drama faculty. Dennis Kelly, one of the most fertile contemporary British dramatists, bases his work on the 1990s style of “in-yer-face theatre”, also known as cool theatre. “Most of the world believes in God, or Marx, the unseen hand of the market, or honesty, or something. They swim through life, eyes shut, taking it all on the chin, getting fucked. But a minuscule fraction of the population knows the real nature of life. To those people is given the world. The rest of the world will always be meat to them, cattle, animals to be hunted. We’re a secret society, we don’t have handshakes, we don’t have meetings or wear silly costumes, but we exist and we know each other. And when we see each other we smile, and inside we say to each other: “Look at those idiots. Why are they so stupid? Why don’t they just take what they want, like we do?”” The play in many ways draws on the tradition of European drama: the moral conflict at its core represents a variation on the Faust theme; the model cut of the play has its roots in the mediaeval morality play, while the use of the chorus and the emphasis on the fate of the individual in the order of the world draws on ancient drama. The play combines text surfaces with dramatic situations, and with its synthetic structure lends itself to the application of an unusually wide range of staging approaches. A distinctive element of the production is the original music by composer Jakub Borovanský, performed live by students from the Prague conservatory. The production won the Mark Ravenhill Award, given annually to the best Czech theatre production of a new work of drama.

// Credits //

Direction Adam Svozil
Translation Lucie Kolouchová
Dramaturgy Kristýna Kosová
Set design and costumes Jan Tereba
Costumes Barbara Fehérová
Author of music and musical assistance Jakub Borovanský
Musical assistance Eliška Čonková, Hana Kostrunková, Jenovéfa Boková, Barbora Tipková
Production Eduard Prokhasko, Kateřina Rundová, Richard Juan Rozkovec

With acting students from the department of dramatic theatre:
Anna Kratochvílová, Elizaveta Shvachko, Matyáš Řezníček, Eliška Jansová, Adam Ernest, Ihor Krotovych, Matěj Vejdělek, Jáchym Kučera, Vít Roleček, Eva Hacurová, Veronika Lapková

Teaching staff:
Doc. MgA. Jan Burian, Mgr. Jana Kudláčková, doc. MgA. Jakub Korčák, Ladislav Mrkvička, PhDr. Štěpán Otčenášek, Mgr. Regina Szymiková, MgA. Michal Lázňovský

Premiere April 3rd, 2015

// Author //

Adam Svozil (1991) – A recent graduate in direction from DAMU. His student work includes an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream entitled *LIKE A DREAM*, and an adaptation of three one-act plays by Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Blues. He has directed a number of staged readings (such as Hell is Just a Sauna for Divadlo Letí). The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mantomas by Dennis Kelly is his graduation production. He has also participated in the creation of the productions The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge / part 1 in the Studio Hrdinů and Houses of Ill Repute as part of the Krátká Dlouhá cycle.

// Press //

This depiction of the career of an unscrupulous man, who at the end of his life remains entirely alone, in these theatre students’ interpretation combines social urgency with amusing spectacle.

Jan Kerbr, member of the Mark Ravenhill Award jury

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