Director Jan Frič (b. 1983) is one of the most outstanding theatre personalities of his generation. He has worked with chamber theatres, alternative theatres (A studio Rubín, Masopust, Divadlo X10) and large theatres (National Theatre Brno, Klicperovo divadlo). His original cabaret Velvet Havel (at 2014 Flora) caused a sensation when it won all the theatre critics’ awards.
From 2017–2022 he was the in-house drama director of the National Theatre, where he was invited by then artistic director Daniela Špinar. Frič has realised a number of remarkable projects there, including his unique take on the classics The Misanthrope, Oedipus Rex (both 2019), Faust (2018), as well as productions of contemporary texts. His adaptation of Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova (2021) and Euripides’ The Bacchae (2023) were both awarded Production of the Year.
Despite all his success, in 2023 he walked away from the performing arts. “The reason is that, as a freelancer, I can no longer make a living at the current rates. I’d have to do three times as much work than would fit into a single year,” he said in an interview with Czech Radio Vltava in 2024. He eventually returned to directing – and again won Production of the Year for The Vultures (2025).
In his work, Jan Frič explores metaphysics and the contradictions of human existence, themes also addressed in his original production Nothing Needs to Be Done Any Longer (Divadlo v Dlouhé)—which was also featured at the 26th Flora Theatre Festival in 2023. He is a long-standing critic of overproduction in Czech theatre and the alarming underfunding of the artistic professions. He addressed this critical issue in his original production BurnOut or Burn! already in 2019. In 2025, together with Kamila Polívková, he initiated the founding of the association and the informational website divadlo.pro.