Play on Heroes
Studio Hrdinů theatre, Prague, 2021/2022
multi-channel video installation on the stage in the theatre, 45 min, 5× video
The multi-channel video installation on the stage of Studio Hrdinů theatre is the result of a long-term project, which in collaboration with the theatre focused on exploring gesture and diction in actor’s speech, on affecting the boundaries of performativity and on repositioning theatrical pathos in new contexts. Based on the principle of alienation and editing of theatrical gesture, a language play about parallel narratives that overlap, cross and transpose each other was created. They merge the personal and structural levels of dramatic form, as well as the opposition of fixed film footage and live theatrical expression. The variations and combinations of the new story reflect the themes of the hero, the theatrical hero, or perhaps the hero of the theatre Studio Hrdinů, who is currently going through a crisis of his own creation, a crisis of his position as an artist in society, but also a crisis of his own identity. A new, elusive form is thus emerging, one that mixes theatricality with alienating manipulation, theatrical emotion with relentless construction, and analytical approach with absurdist humour.
Conception, direction, editing: Tereza Velíková
Director of photography: Ivan Svoboda
Sound: Petr Zábrodský
Sound post-production: Stanislav Abrahám
Image post-production: Tomáš Daliman
Dramaturgy: Jan Horák
Consultation: Jiří Ptáček
The realization of the scene: Matěj Al Ali
Technical design: Václav Hruška
Performing: Cyril Dobrý, Julie Goetzová, Jakub Gottwald, Eva Hacurová, Vendula Holičková, Agáta Kryštůfková, Ivan Lupták, Gabriela Míčová, Kateřina Neznalová, Marek Pospíchal, Petr Reif, Johana Schmidtmajerová, Pavlína Štorková, Halka Třešňáková
Thanks to: Jan Horák a Michal Pěchouček, Miroslav Bambušek, Ivan Buraj, Iga Gańczarczyk a Magda Jiřička Stojowska, Jiří Adámek a kolektiv, Katharina Schmitt
The production was financially supported by the Scholarship Programme of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic.
