Enema for This Child...

TUE May 18 7:30 pm Moravian Theatre

Georges Feydeau
ENEMA FOR THIS CHILD, PLEASE!
HORTENSE SAYS, “I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!”
Divadlo v Dlouhé Prague / CZ

A night of two one-act plays
by the famous comedy playwright
on an undying theme of the marital duel.

director Hana Burešová
translation Roman Císař
script Hana Burešová, Štěpán Otčenášek
dramatic adviser Štěpán Otčenášek
stage design David Marek
costumes Hana Fischerová
music Jan Vondráček
premiere March 16, 2010

characters and cast
Follavoine, Leboucq Tomáš Turek
Follbraguet Pavel Tesař
Adhéaume Chouilloux, Vildamour Jiří Wohanka
Horatio Truchet, Adrian Miloslav König
Julie Follavoine, Cook Magdalena Zimová
Clementine Chouilloux, Marcelle Follbraguet Marie Turková
Rose, Hortense Helena Dvořáková
Mrs. Dingue Jaroslava Pokorná / Naďa Vicenová
Toto Matěj Převrátil


Enema for This Child, Please!? A Side-splitting Stage Laugh
When the director Hana Burešová spoke about a couple of Georges Feydeau's one-acts unstaged in Czech theatres so far, she pointed out, alongside the fact that they are comedy pieces, the prodigious analysis of marital stereotypes which could lead to hell on Earth for both parties. What her drama company at Divadlo v Dlouhé shows us is for one thing an apt diagnosis of mutual marriage terror, but first of all it is an extremely funny production.
Feydeau wrote a brilliant play, but trying not to mess up a comedy, direct and act it out in such a way that you make sure you do not thwart a single gag, adding up a number of stage ideas, building up situational humour and avoid getting stuck in moralizing is a hard one to crack. The Dlouhá Theatre managed to do it well. (...)



Scenes from a Marriage after 100 Years at Divadlo v Dlouhé
(...) Divadlo v Dlouhé has not failed expectations in bringing up acting qualities and helpful engagement toward the audience by Magdalena Zimová, Pavel Tesař or Helena Dvořáková, to name but a few outstanding performances. And the guest child actor Matěj Převrátil should of course also be noted here: he manages to act out his part unusually well despite his very young age and his natural behaviour contradicts the frequent and mostly apt phrase that “children should be kept off the stage”. The situations of troubled men and their unbearable counterparts is a source of laugh to spectators of both sexes. While men probably feel satisfaction that someone finally understands their position, women tend to think: “I'm definitely not that terrible.” We cannot do anything about the mutual misunderstanding between males and females, but we may at least have a laugh at it.


Hana Burešová (b. 1959) graduated from drama direction at Prague's DAMU Academy in 1983. Together with her husband Štěpán Otčenášek, who is her frequent dramatic adviser, she directed her early productions at Prague's Club in Řeznická. From 1988 to 1992 she worked at Středočeské divadlo Kladno/Mladá Boleslav, and then from 1992–95 at Divadlo Labyrint in Prague. Since 1996, she has been part of the artistic staff at Divadlo v Dlouhé, in a team with her husband and director Jan Borna. She has also worked as a guest director at other theatres (National Theatre Prague, Divadlo Na zábradlí, Viola Theatre, Činoherní studio Ústí nad Labem and the M. Držič Theatre in Dubrovnik, Croatia; she has also been a regular guest director at Ungelt Theatre Prague and Brno City Theatre).
Hana Burešová has directed fifty productions and three drama adaptations for radio. She has won the Alfréd Radok Award for Best Czech Production of the Year (Don Juan and Faust – 1993 and Emperor Paul I – 2008).
In 2005, the Flora Theatre Festival hosted her production of Dürrenamatt's absurd drama Play Strindberg (Ungelt Theatre), in 2006 she visited the event with her version of Calderón's The Devotion to the Cross and two years later, she brought Merezhkovsky's drama Emperor Paul I: both latter productions were made at the Brno City Theatre.