FREIHEIT

Traumas from the frontline battles and the imposed exile; disillusionment with historical incorrigibility; devaluation of basic values and human life itself; relativization of suffering. An intense polyphony of the burning issues of today in the first Czech adaptation of the legendary anti-war novel and the first domestic production of a contemporary Ukrainian playwright’s topical text – in a diptych by Dušan D. Pařízek. Ceremonial closing of the 27th Flora Theatre Festival. Discussion follows

Already with last year’s Moskoviáda (The Moscoviad), set in post-revolutionary Russia, Pařížek’s team indicated that they still manage to present European-style drama in the Czech environment, even after leaving Divadlo Komedie.
Jan H. Vitvar, Respekt

The result is a powerful anti-war drama in Pařízek’s typical directorial and artistic style with outstanding performances. A piece that ranks among this season’s best theatrical events in the Czech Republic.
Success of the Month section, Divadelní noviny 

The pairing of Remarque with a contemporary play by a Ukrainian playwright works; the atrocities of war as depicted by the German writer are a sounding board for what the women who fled the war are experiencing, as if the hundred years between them have disappeared. And Pařízek gives this lucid account a stylistically pure form.
Jana Machalická, Lidové noviny

 

After the acclaimed Moskoviáda (The Moscoviad), Dušan D. Pařízek once again took up a Ukrainian topic at Divadlo X10. With a similar production team, he has staged two seemingly disparate texts separated by a century – an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s cult novel and a contemporary play by Ukrainian author Natalya Vorozhbyt. “The theme that Pařízek used to link the two titles is the use of humans in war. Whether you are fighting directly on the battlefield or ‘just’ fleeing through a green corridor for civilians to relative safety, you will never be the same again,” critic Josef Chuchma appreciated the urgency of the piece.
The opening part of the diptych describes the experiences of frontline soldiers in World War I, while the second part accentuates the current situation of Ukrainian female refugees in Central and Western Europe, who endlessly stand in various queues in the hope of life. Thoughts on the meaning and causes of war from the early 20^th century are mixed with reflections on the immediate impact of recent war crimes in Ukraine, showing how different men’s and women’s experiences of war are.

 

direction, stage design Dušan David Pařízek
translation Ivana Parkmanová (All Quiet on the Western Front), Kamila Polívková, Dušan David Pařízek (Green Corridors – translated from the German version of the first performance)
adaptation Dušan David Pařízek (All Quiet on the Western Front), Peter Fasching, Dušan David Pařízek (Green Corridors)
dramaturgy Ondřej Novotný
costume design Kamila Polívková
music Peter Fasching
poster Terezie Chlíbcová
photos Patrik Borecký
stage and costume design assistant Magdaléna Vrábová
prompter and director’s assistant Jana Jungvirtová 

cast
Gabriela Míčová, Antonie Rašilovová, Lucie Roznětínská, Jan Bárta, Stanislav Majer, Martin Pechlát

premiere 16 December 2023

 

Dušan David Pařízek (1971) ranks among the most successful Czech theatre directors at home and abroad. He was the founder of Pražské komorní divadlo (Prague Chamber Theatre), which under his direction (2002–2012) became the most progressive and profiled theatre scene in the Czech Republic. Its dramaturgy was based on demanding texts by authors such as Werner Schwab, Thomas Bernhard, Elfride Jelinek and Peter Handke, whose texts Pařížek revisits, e.g. with Zdeněk Adamec. SelfAccusation, a production of Divadlo Na zábradlí, presented at Flora 2022. And ten years earlier, following the demise of Pražské komorní divadlo, the festival offered a profile showing of seven titles in the programme section “Žádná Komedie!” (No Comedy!).
At the beginning of the millennium, Pařízek established himself on the most important Germanlanguage stages throughout Europe, such as the Burgtheater and Volkstheater in Vienna, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Theater Bremen, Schauspielhaus Bochum or the prestigious Salzburger Festspiele.
Pařízek is a multiple winner of the Nestroy Theatre Prize and the Critics’ Award of Theater heute magazine.
His work can be seen as a study of relationships within Central European countries and national identities, which, despite their common history, are very diverse and whose national myths need to be revised. This was, for example, the theme of the co-production project of Studio Hrdinů and Theater Bremen, The Case Schweik (at Flora 2017), or the acclaimed Moscoviad based on Yuri Andrukhovych’s novel (at Flora 2023).
Pařízek’s staging of The Ridiculous Darkness at Vienna’s Burgtheater won the prestigious Theater heute poll and became the best German-language production of the 2014/2015 season. His adaptations at the Volkstheater – The Old Masters (Bernhard) and Self-Accusation (Handke) – have also been highly acclaimed. All three Austrian titles were exclusively shown at the 20th Flora Theatre Festival in 2016 in the profile programme section “Regie: Dušan D. Pařízek, Wien.”

Divadlo X10, based in Prague, is an open platform for contemporary theatre and other types of live art. Since its founding in 2013, it has undergone a tumultuous evolution from an alternative stage hosting at the Strašnice theatre to a respected experimental production house located in DUP39 (Dům uměleckého průmyslu).
Divadlo X10 was founded by its current managing director Lenka Havlíková, in-house director Ewa Zembok and actress Anna Císařovská. The artistic management consists of two more Ondřejs – the dramaturge and playwright Novotný and the director Štefaňák, who is also the artistic director of X10. Apart from drama, the stage also develops the art-performative project Y Events and creates projects in the virtual space Tribuna X10 and Play Havel.
Divadlo X10 also initiates the creation of new plays. Regular collaborators include directors Štěpán Gajdoš and Tomáš Loužný. Jan Frič, Barbara Herz and Dušan D. Pařízek, Michal Hába’s Lachende Bestien and the dance collective Dočasná Company are also its regular guests.

……………….. 

Interview with Dušan D. Pařízek
https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/…iser-9134248

Reportage / Czech TV
https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/…ast/1018263/  

Programme for the production with historical and political context / Divadlo X10
https://www.divadlox10.cz/…ene-koridory

 

photo Patrik Borecký