Alfred Hirsch was an educator, Zionist and sportsman who raised and educated Jewish children in the German camps. A liminal situation in the turbulent life of a complicated personality whose freedom and choice are radically limited… – Directed by Jan Nebeský, based on the acting and singing skills of co-writer Miloslav König.
discussion follows

Nebeský’s direction lightens the essentially horrific outline of the (fragmented) story with irony and jokes, without distracting from the basic situation of a human in a liminal situation.
Josef Chuchma, Divadelní noviny, 15 June 2022

He only has an hour to think and his whole life is running through his head…
The story of Alfred Hirsch, a Jewish athlete, avid scout and Zionist, would provide enough material for a Hollywood movie. In the inhumane conditions of the Terezín ghetto and Auschwitz, he tried to create a safe space for children to play and cooperate, he played theatre and exercised with them. He taught them discipline and hygiene to help them survive. He earned respect even from members of the SS, despite his homosexual orientation, which at that time meant a threat to life. Hirsch’s unexplained death still stirs up speculation. According to testimony, he took an hour to consider whether to lead the revolt at the Auschwitz camp. But he was found unconscious and overdosed on barbiturates…

Nebeský’s production of Fredy forms an imaginary diptych with the acclaimed hit Deník zloděje (The Thief’s Journal), which appeared at Flora in 2018. “To all the connections between The Thief’s Journal and Freddy, we must add König’s acting and singing skills, the combination of which he uses to express the obsession, poignancy or brokenness of an individual like few others in contemporary Czech theatre,” appreciated Josef Chuchma. The audience of Flora thus has one of the last opportunities to experience the unique poetics of the Masopust company, which recently announced its end.

directed by Jan Nebeský

dramaturgy and collaboration on the script Tereza Marečková
stage design Jan Nebeský, Petra Vlachynská
costume design Petra Vlachynská
music Martin Dohnal 

cast Miroslav König and Sebastian Pöthe

premiere 4 June 2022

Jan Nebeský (1953) is a unique director with an unmistakable scenic style, not only within the context of Czech theatre, and a multiple winner of prestigious theatre awards. He graduated from directing at the DAMU in Prague. His most important works include adaptations of almost the complete works of Ibsen (Ghosts, John Gabriel Borkman, The Master Builder, The Wild Duck, Little Eyolf, Hedda Gabler, A Doll’s House). Nebeský discovered the Austrian author Ernst Jandl for Czech theatre when he staged The Humanists at Divadlo Komedie in 2007 and the famous production Out of Estrangement at Divadlo Na zábradlí in 1999.
Jan Nebeský is one of the most frequent guests of the Flora Theatre Festival, which regularly presents his remarkable work to the audience. The programme featured both his guest productions at major theatres (for example, Out of Estrangement, Little Eyolf, A Doll’s House, The Thief’s Journal) and his authorial projects. These include a trilogy tracing the lineage of the great figures of European literature (Hamlet Part II, Incomplete Dream, NoD Quijote) and titles by the Jedl company, which further develops this line (Inferno – Variations on Dante; Double Home / from Čep; Reynek / Words and Images from Petrkov; Zahradníček / All Mine Is Yours; The Waste Land; Private Confessions; The Little Creator / Der kleine Fratz). Among Nebeský’s regular collaborators are screenwriter and actress Lucie Trmíková, actors David Prachař, Petr Jeništa and Miloslav König, costume designer Petra Vlachynská, musicians Jan Šikl and Martin Dohnal, dance group 420PEOPLE, and playwright Egon Tobiáš.

The theatre, film and television actor Miloslav König (1984) comes from the village of Postřelmůvek near Zábřeh in Moravia. He graduated from the DAMU. He has worked on many stages from the National Theatre to musical theatre to various independent projects. For several seasons he performed at Divadlo v Dlouhé, he is a member of the ensemble of Divadlo Na zábradlí. In 2018, König was the face of the Flora Theatre Festival. He also works on his own music and as a director – he is the artistic director of the Masopust company.

The independent theatre company Masopust, based in Eliadova knihovna (Eliade’s Library) in Divadlo Na zábradlí, was founded in 2008 by the creative team of the production of Topol’s play The End of Mardi Gras, which was staged by director Štěpán Pácl and dramaturge Tereza Marečková with DAMU graduates (Miloslav König, Magdalena Borová, Pavla Beretová, Richard Fiala, Jan Meduna, Lukáš Příkazký, Jiří Panzner). Since its inception, the company was working in the field of dramaturgical archaeology connected with contemporary topics and imaginative direction, focusing on unperformed or seemingly unplayable texts that offer a multitude of displaced or overly introverted, often spiritual themes. In addition to Pácl (Brand/Oheň; Chupacabra; El Príncipe Constante/Vytrvalý princ), Anna Davidová Petrželková (Orlando; Seven Samurai; Antieva), Jan Frič (Angels Among Us; Hunger), Jan Nebeský (The Thief’s Journal; Fredy) a Miloslav König (Genet; Misunderstanding), who is also the artistic director of the Masopust company, regularly directed there. In January 2024, the theatre announced its dissolution.

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Interview with director Miloslav König / ČRo Vltava
https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/…omis-9165868 

Portrait of Alfred Hirsch

-Czech TV documentary  

https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/…52801390011/

https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/…62210900008/ 

https://www.holocaust.cz/…redy-hirsch/

-portrait / Paměť národa
https://www.pametnaroda.cz/…nesitelnejsi 

Podcast Heroes dedicated to Jewish anti-Nazi activists 
https://plus.rozhlas.cz/…byla-8766223 

photo Lucie Urban