Thomas Bernhard
THE FORCE OF HABIT
HaDivadlo Brno

WED 17 May — 4 pm S-klub

An artist should do everything he can to leave the stage while he still has the force to do so. But the habit is circus act… The ageing bard Garibaldi in his last gesture of relentless desire not to hit rock bottom. For twenty-two years he has been trying to extract shameless performances out of his accommodating and sheepish puppet-like artists. A genius surrounded with losers or a psychopathic monster? Bang and the space! And the hat keeps falling off the head...

This duo of directors Horák–Pěchouček have been continuously studying the theme of an artist's work, its sources, consequences, and limits. Bernhard's tragicomedy with grotesque elements exposing the longing for perfection and (in)capability of artistic self-reflection was an obvious choice for them.

directed by Jan Horák, Michal Pěchouček

translated by Josef Balvín
dramaturgy Matěj Nytra
stage design Michal Pěchouček
costumes Beáta Spáčilová
sound design Natálie Pleváková
video Matěj Sláma
visual art assistant Jan Matýsek

premiere 28 April 2017

characters and cast
Caribaldi Cyril Drozda
Juggler Jiří Svoboda
Lion-Tamer Zbyšek Humpolec
Clown Mark Kristián Hochman g.a.
Granddaughter Agáta Kryštůfková

Jan Horák (1977) studied Theatre Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. As the dramaturge of a theatre and film club, he was responsible for four distinctive seasons of MeetFactory in Prague (2008–2012). He was awarded the honours of the Next Wave 2009 festival for its progressive programme “connecting foreign directors with Czech actors”. Since 2011 he has been the artistic director of Studio Hrdinů, where he works as director and dramaturge – he cooperated with directors such as Miroslav Bambušek, Katharina Schmitt, Kamila Polívková and Jan Nebeský. He develops his continuous interest in texts reflecting the act of creation in visually-oriented productions; he also focuses on interdisciplinary dialogue – besides other things, he organizes the NORMA festival in Ostrava where he presents works on the border between fine art and theatre.

Michal Pěchouček (1973) is known mostly as visual artist and has worked with various media, visual installations, or video art. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1999 and in 2003 he was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. For the past five years, he has solely worked in theatre including stage and costume design. He had his debut as director at MeetFactory in cooperation with Jan Horák with the production Muži malují (2009) about the behind the scenes of entrance examinations to the Academy of Fine Arts.

The duo Horák–Pěchouček is at Studio Hrdinů signed under direction of titles such as The Church (2012), The Emotional Poseur (2013), …a měl rád hnědou; I don’t know if you are interested, but I am writing it just in case you might be interested later (about 2014), Marbot (2015) and Cell No. (2017). This year they produced Bernhard's Force of Habit at HaDivadlo in Brno. Their adaptation of Wolframa Lotz's Pár vzkazů veškerenstvu (Einige Nachrichten an das All) will close the season at Studio Hrdinů.

The HaDivadlo theatre is situated in Brno, however, it was established by official authorities in Prostějov in 1974 as the Hanácké divadlo (director Svatopluk Vála and dramaturge Josef Kovalčuk were associated with it), but soon after it worked its way up from an amateur group to a professional studio stage with demanding dramaturgy. In 1985 they moved to Brno and by merging with Ochotnický kroužek of J. A. Pitínský, the Kabinet múz was created. After some minor mishaps with their residence, they settled down in the former cinema of the Alfa Pasáž in 2004.

Remarkable personalities have participated in forming of the unique poetics of the theatre such as director and playwright Arnošt Goldflam, actor and author Miloš Černoušek (aka Cyril Drozda), musicians Jiří Bulis and Václav Koubek, actors Ján Sedal, Marie Ludvíková and Miloslav Maršálek, directors Jiří Pokorný, Břetislav Rychlík, Oxana Smilková, David Jařab, Luboš Balák or actors' quartet Matonoha–Liška–Daniel–Polášek. During Marián Amsler's direction (2007–2015) HaDivadlo gained renown for their productions The Expulsion of Gerta Schnirch and the adaptation of Marysha, which received the Theatre Newspaper Award in 2014 and 2015.

New artistic director Ivan Buraj keeps the direction of the repertoire towards the German-language material, which was promised in the “self-reflective” season 2016/2017 named MY a ONI (US and THEM), which explored the impenetrability of social borders and besides Bloch, offered plays also by Bernhard and Lotz.