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Current AffairsNew Czech-American play looks at dating across cultures
Prague’s Divadlo na Zábradlí may be famous for staging former President
Václav Havel’s plays, but over the next couple of months, it will be
playing host to something rather different. ‘Láska je love, love is
láska’ is a performance in two languages - about what happens when an
American boy meets a Czech girl. The play is set to be performed for only
the second time ever on Wednesday night, but in the run up to the show, I
went along to find out more:
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Current AffairsFamous actor Radovan Lukavský dies aged 88
One of the legends of Czech theatre, the actor Radovan Lukavský, died on
Monday at the age of 88. Lukavský’s renown was largely built on such
performances as his 1960s Hamlet at the National Theatre, though many
Czechs will remember him for his part in a 1970s TV adaptation of a novel
by Alois Jirásek. Ruth Fraňková looks back at the life of one of the
all-time great Czech actors.
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Current AffairsWinning plays of the Prague Post Playwriting Contest premiere on Saturday
If you want to see original English drama performed on a Czech stage, come
to Prague’s Divadlo Minor this weekend. Saturday will see the premiere of
this year’s three best plays selected by the jury of The Prague Post
Playwriting Contest. The winners of the competition, organized by the
English-language weekly, get the chance to see their plays produced by
theatre professionals. I went to have a look at the last minute
preparations at Divadlo Minor.
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One on OneJulek Neumann – son of the stage
Julek Neumann is currently appearing at Prague’s Divadlo Ypsilon in a
Mark Twain play which he himself translated into Czech. The new production
marks his return to the theatre’s stage after a gap of nearly two and a
half decades. In between he lived in Vienna and then London, where he
worked for the Czech section of the BBC World Service during what was a
period of change. When I met Julek Neumann in a café in Dejvice the other
evening he first told me a little about his family background.
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Czechs in HistoryJiří (George) Voskovec – the Czech theatrical pioneer who carved out a Cold-War career in Hollywood
This edition of Czechs in History looks at the life and career of Jiří
Voskovec, one half of the legendary Czech duo Voskovec and Werich, whose
work at the “Liberated Theatre” or Osvobozené Divadlo in the 1920s
and
30s left an indelible mark on Czech culture. More
ArtsBuchty a Loutky – A minority among minorities in Czech puppet theatre
There are various marionette theatres in the Czech Republic but few which
enjoy as cutting edge a reputation as Buchty a Loutky (Cake &
Puppets),
a troupe founded in Prague in the early 1990s which took Czech theatre in
new directions. The group’s name is a take on the famous Bread &
Puppet Theatre based in the US since the 1960s, known for serving free
bread to the audience as a means of creating community. One of the
group’s founders, Marek Becka, explains naming his troupe Buchty a
Loutky
was a bit of a joke, not without a measure of irony. More
Current AffairsBozena Nemcova’s Babicka at National Theatre for the first time
Babicka or The Grandmother by Bozena Nemcova is unquestionably one of the
icons of Czech literature and, as a regular item on school reading lists,
it is known to literally every Czech child. Published in 1855, the book saw
more than 350 editions, dozens of theatre productions and several film
adaptations. Now, for the first time ever, an adaptation of Babicka has
reached the stage of the Czech National Theatre.
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Current AffairsWill it be third time lucky for Vaclav Havel’s play “Leaving”?
When Vaclav Havel stepped down as president after three terms in office he
said he was planning to return to his creative roots. His first play in two
decades –called “Leaving” or “Odchazeni” in Czech – draws on
his experience in the world of politics and has generated a lot of media
attention. Prague’s top theatres jockeyed for the honour of presenting it
but finding the right stage for Mr Havel’s new play has not proved easy.
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Czech BooksVaclav Havel reenters the stage
It was the literary headline of the year, when Vaclav Havel’s first play
for nearly two decades was published a few weeks ago and we can be every
bit as sure that the first performance of the play next year at Prague’s
Na Vinohradech Theatre, will be a huge event. When Havel became president
after the spectacular fall of the communist regime in 1989, many predicted
that he would never write again. The new play “Odchazeni” (Leaving)
proves them wrong. Not only has Havel shown that he can still write, but he
has also drawn directly from his political experiences, with a plot that
will inevitably make audiences look for parallels in his own extraordinary
career. To talk about the play I caught up with Jitka Sloupova who
represents Vaclav Havel for the literary agency Aura Pont. I asked her how
difficult she thought it was for Havel to return to writing.
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Current AffairsVaclav Havel presents new play
Vaclav Havel was back in his original role as playwright on Wednesday,
when, at a theatre in Prague, the former Czech president presented the book
form of "Odchazeni", or "Leaving". The long awaited and
widely discussed play will appear in the bookshops in less than a two
week's time. However, Mr Havel's first new play in 18 years will not be
premiered until the end of May or the beginning of June.
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