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ff The actors and actresses behave like a peculiar type of mercurial matter which either shoots in all directions into anonymous individuality, or suddenly forms itself into a single mass of bodies, angrily jumping or masturbating. It would be wrong to characterise individual performances, since their fascinating strength consists of this common mutability. And also of some sort of sensibility, with which they and the director create emotionally-gradated scenes. Richard Erml, Dlvadelni noviny
ff At the start Mikulašek creates bands of sounds in a collage created by the actors themselves, the sounds can be heard of sleepers rattling under the trains going to the death camps, bombs exploding, soldiers singing as they go to the front, with hints of the Marsellalse and Roll Out The Barrel. Mikulašek’s production continues with the bold use of music, but the sound score is gradually complemented by the physical score: hints of masturbation and copulation, cramps, jumping, fits, starts and hangings. At the most powerful points of the production both scores come together, as with the trite motif of the Ode to Joy. “sung” in desperate sobs by actors rolling around on the floor. Another feature of the 20th century is shown in the moments when the actors simply jump to the whistle, while political insouciance is captured by a snatch of Beatles pop. Jan Nemec, Respekt
PATRIK OUREDNIK was born in 1957. He is a translator, essayist and multi-genre writer with a refined sense for lexical stylistic techniques as well as a fondness for mystification, experimentation and games. He studied acting and directing at the People's Art School in Prague (197 A-76) and has lived in France since 1985. "What is the truth? Historical truth? The truth of a literary text? The truth of utopia? The truth of memory?” asks the author - and perhaps he provides answers in his poetry, prose, fairy tales, his lexicological work or Rabelaisian pastiche.
JAN MIKULAŠEK was born in 1978. Previously the artistic head of the Brno children’s theatre, Polarka, and of Ostrava’s Petr Bezruč Theatre, he is now a director of the Theatre on the Balustrade, Mikulašek's directing style is noticeably influenced by film - not only do his productions include a large number of adaptations from film, but they also feature elements of film language on stage. He uses editing, detail, musical counterpoint and the parallel development of action. His second clear source of inspiration is fine art, from which he takes an emphasis on careful stage composition and lighting. Jan Mikulašek is also an expert in genres. He inclines towards grotesque stylisation, finding space for it in large productions as well as small ones. Nevertheless, his productions also display a particularly pessimistic, inconclusive picture of the world. Despite the lively buzz on stage and the exaggeration, they are shot through with melancholy and the loss of illusions.
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