May 21st Sun, 2:30 PM – 4:10 PM | S-klub
Édouard Louis HISTORY OF VIOLENCE Švandovo divadlo Prague
How radically different can two descriptions of one real event be? A shocking autobiographic memory as a suspenseful “upside down detective story”. A passionate and emotion-filled reflection on racial prejudice and homophobia in a dynamic direction by Tomáš Loužný.
Ticket price: 250 / 150 Kč
In History of Violence, Loužný succeeds in doing what the author did: to look at the hidden racism of our (European) civilization and at the same time leave room for insights into the inner workings of the main character. It is a thoughtful and, in many motifs, ingenious imprint of the subject into a distinctive stage work.
Vladimír Hulec, Divadelní noviny.cz, 4 April 2022
Right in the opening „silent“, emotionally agonizing scene, the actor Oskar Hes shows himself to be an ideal cast Édouard – sensitive, guileless, vulnerable. He gives a brilliant performance, believable in all positions, erotic outburst and neediness, later humiliation, defiance, shame for himself. (…) Loužný has avoided the danger of converting Louis's detailed confession into a mere flow of words. On the contrary, there is perhaps not a single word too much.
Ester Žantovská, Aktuálně.cz, 16 February 2022
adapted and directed by Tomáš Loužný
dramaturgy David Košt'ák
set design Petr Vítek
costumes Martin Chocholoušek
music Ivo Sedláček
assistant director and stage manager Blanka Popková
production Tereza Marková
characters and cast
Eddie Oskar Hes
Reda Jan Grundman
Clara Nataša Bednářová / Natálie Řehořová
Policewoman / Nurse / Doctor / Didier Marie Štípková
Policeman / Doctor / Geoffrey David Punčochář
Musician Ivo Sedláček / Filip Šebšajevič
premiere 12 February 2022
A confident artist – director, translator, playwright – and passionate traveller, Tomáš Loužný graduated from the Department of Drama Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In his productions, he primarily tries to reflect our contemporary experience and to find new forms of expression for it. Through his work, he has also profiled himself as a rigorous analyst of human nature and has consistently dealt artistically with the themes of bullying, violence and the question of guilt and punishment. His thorough work and open dialogue with actors is also typical. In an interview with Divadelní noviny 5/2023, he explains, „I am not a director who tells the actors: Come from the left and pick up a cup, they can do that according to the notes in the text. I'm trying to inspire them to solve situations or images, to find a path that is only ours.“
He has been a guest in a number of theatres such as Letí Theatre, Činoherní studio in Ústí nad Labem and Divadlo X10. Last year, he staged his original production Vstup zakázán (Entrance Forbidden) at Divadlo na cucky in Olomouc. Since his studies, he has regularly collaborated with the stage design duo Martin Chocholoušek-Petr Vítek and the composer Ivo Gregorec Sedláček. This is no different in his latest production Komedie Jack staví dům (Comedy Jack Builds a House, 2023), which was created for the Divadlo Komedie (MDP) and in which Loužný once again looks at his central theme – violence.
Loužný has twice won the competition for short plays established by the Václav Havel Library in New York, and his text Vyvolený (The Chosen One) won the Radio Drama Author Award for best original radio play. He considers himself a European first and only then a Czech.
The modern history of Švandovo divadlo began in December 2002, when it reopened as a free cultural space after extensive reconstruction. The theatre returned to its original name and renewed the tradition of the third oldest theatre building in Prague. Since 1999, it has been headed by director Daniel Hrbek, who has revitalised it from the ground up and created a modern theatre institution with a novel, opinionated dramaturgy. Martin Františák has been the artistic director since the 2019/2020 season. Through productions that step out of the boundaries of the comfort zone, the creators here seek to engage in an open and free dialogue with the audience over themes that resonate in society – environmental grief, artificial intelligence, gender identity, homophobia or the issue of rape. They also build artistically on a strong ensemble of actors related in generation and opinion.
Regular guests of Švandovo divadlo are Buchty a loutky, Divadelní spolek JEDL and other ensembles. The production also includes two popular talk shows: the stage interviews of Olomouc patriot David Hrbek (since 2003) and 7 pádů Honzy Dědka (since this season). The theatre offers thematically diverse workshops and includes productions for children and youth in its repertoire. The concept of the theatre as a living community is enhanced by the associated community centre in the reconstructed courtyard of Dům Romaneto, which provides a place for cultural activities and „neighbourhood“ meetings.
Regular guests of Švandovo divadlo are Buchty a loutky, Divadelní spolek JEDL and other ensembles. The production also includes two popular talk shows: the stage interviews of Olomouc patriot David Hrbek (since 2003) and 7 pádů Honzy Dědka (since this season). The theatre offers thematically diverse workshops and includes productions for children and youth in its repertoire. The concept of the theatre as a living community is enhanced by the associated community centre in the reconstructed courtyard of Dům Romaneto, which provides a place for cultural activities and „neighbourhood“ meetings.
Édouard Louis (1992), a leading representative of French autobiographical fiction, is one of the most acclaimed young writers today. Artistically, he follows the legacy of authors such as James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir and William Faulkner, but thematically he is most influenced by the French philosopher and sociologist Didier Eribon, whose book Returning to Reims marked a major turning point in Louis's journey to becoming a writer.
His debut novel, The End of Eddy (2014), in which he describes his difficult adolescence with uncompromising honesty, attracted a great deal of media coverage and contributed to the reopening of the debate on working-class perceptions and the gaping social divides in French society.
Literarily, he profiles as a rather left-wing author and repeatedly portrays in his works the humiliation and social exclusion that members of the working class have to face. Although he also names their ills – racism, homophobia, violence – he does not slip into passing judgement, but sympathises and defends them because they come from the same background.
He has written five novels, the latest of which, Changer: method, a deeply personal story of disgust with one's own life and the constant need to remake oneself, will be published in Czech translation this April (was published in English in 2021).
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Report about the production (in Czech)
https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/…11000120215/
Interview with Tomáš Loužný (in Czech)
-https://www.divadelni-noviny.cz/…sverili-svet
-https://www.mujrozhlas.cz/…rika-reziser
Podcast about literature
https://open.spotify.com/…zEn2pyIHNdb5?…
photo Michal Hančovský
