A tribute to the most famous female car racer and an homage to the uniqueness unbound by convention. A musical depicting the difficult life and brilliant career of Olomouc native Eliška Junková freshly directed by the artistic director of the MDO’s drama company, Roman Vencl.
Starting at 12:30 p.m., a dramaturgical introduction in the foyer of the MDO.

She organised car races, worked for Bata, invented the name of Barum tyres, and was a pioneer in the fight for women’s equality. Eliška Junková. Ela!
With her iconic Bugatti sports car – without power steering, reclining seats or air conditioning – she was the first woman to win the Targa Florio, the toughest race on the thousand gravel serpentines of tropical Sicily, in 1928. The petite racer had to adjust the pedals with blocks to reach them… Brave, modest, invincible. Her fascinating and inspiring personal story comes to life on the MDO’s stage in a new musical comedy.

 

directed by Roman Vencl

dramaturgy Tomáš Syrovátka
stage and costume design Miroslav Král
musical rendition Filip Tailor
choreography Petra Parvoničová
choreography assistant Barbora Lahučká
stage manager Ilona Krejčí
prompter Ivana Smudová

characters and cast

Ela Natálie Tichánková
Mrs Junek Vlasta Hartlová
Čeněk Junek Jan Ťoupalík
Editor Jaroslav Krejčí
The intellectual Ivana Plíhalová
Dad Václav Bahník
Company leader Petr Vaněk
Chiron, Count Kinsky Marek Pešl
Mechanic Adam Sychrow (as a guest)
Racer, spectator and others Tomáš Krejčí
Don Florio Zdeněk Julina
Sister Vendula Nováková
Three girls Kristína Herz, Lenka Kočišová, Naděžda Chroboková-Tomicová

premiere 3 May 2024

 

Actor and director Roman Vencl (1986) studied drama acting at JAMU in Brno. Moravské divadlo Olomouc was his first engagement, where he has been working as an actor since 2009. Since the 2016/17 season, he has also been the artistic director of the MDO’s drama ensemble. He also writes plays, which he often stages in tandem with dramaturge Michaela Doleželová. Especially their comedies enjoy great popularity with the audience – for example, The Queens has been in the MDO’s repertoire for a record eleventh season.

Moravské divadlo Olomouc (MDO), or the Moravian Theatre Olomouc, is one of the oldest theatre buildings in the country (opened in 1830). It has three ensembles – opera/operetta, ballet, and drama, with Roman Vencl as its artistic director since 2016. The ballet section has been led by Jan Fousek since 2022. The artistic director of opera and operetta since the 2022 season is Veronika Kos Loulová, the founder of RUN OPERUN, an association dedicated to the popularization of opera; she has thus become the youngest director of opera in Europe.

In 1996, Václav Kožušník, the then director of the MDO, initiated the creation of Divadelní Flora – a project that has evolved from a regional showcase of Moravian multi-company theatres into one of Central Europe’s most prestigious festivals.

 

vizual Vladimír Kiva Novotný / photo Dan Schulz