*1984
Playwright and director
Alexandr Guha is reading culture studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Charles University. He’s an actor, author and director of the Lost Existence (Ztracená Existence) theatre group, he’s working with an original musical group VDP, moreover he is a performer with the Empty Smile association and with the theatre company An Advantageous Cow (Výhodná Kráva). He initialized and promotes the spiritual movement of alkointellectualism. He works for the Music TV Óčko and also for the Pop Museum at the Chestnut (Kaštan) Culture Centre. He writes for several student newspapers. Besides the Dental Rhapsody he is linked as the author to the play Private Parties (Privátní mejdla) and montages 50-70-90 and Let´s get pissed!
A DENTAL RHAPSODY (DENTÁLNÍ RAPSÓDIE)
12 men, 5 women
You might remember a popular cartoon series Once upon the time there was a life in which cute blood cells loaded with oxygen travelled through the complicated network of blood vessels inside the human body and went through many adventures. The author of this play concentrates in the same way on the oral cavity: Dental Rhapsody follows the stories of the lower jaw. Eight white teeth and a moist tongue do not find much peace in their lives. A cold and elastic chewing gum robs one of them of his girlfriend – the filling – and opens the door to the devilish action of caries. Moreover, their day-long programme and struggle for survival depends on the common actions of the owner of the cavity – not only where the regular toothcare is concerned.
Owner of the mouth, The Girl, is expecting a romantic dinner with her friend – and so the cavity is threatened with the chosen partner’s tongue and as a consequence our resilient heroes will have to deal not only with a bit stuck between the teeth, but also with other unfamiliar objects, of much unpleasant dimensions. And as if it were not enough, the breakfast chocolate starts its deadly work and caries can enjoy his/her position. A life and death duel is just starting…
Premiere in December 2005 by Lost Existence company.
FROM A REVIEW:
It all starts with a very honest text developing brilliantly possibilities of language comedy and using a good idea: to look at life from the perspective of a body part. Besides many staging ideas and jokes (how would you stage an attack of the toothpick on the piece of food stuck between the teeth or rape of the tooth enamel by a chocolate storm?) the play is a great source of both humour and music directing. The ensemble is very much at ease with the revue format and thanks to witty dialogue, playfulness, flair, songs, dance and to the charming girls’ routine the production reminds of the celebrated era of Czech “minor forms theatre”. For that matter, the two hundred members of the audience who had reacted enthusiastically during the performance and gave the production a stormy applause at the end could hardly be made up of the condescending friends. Acting by all the members of the oral cavity group was very good; among them especially the student of the Prague drama academy DAMU Vojtěch Bráník Dvořák who played his character of nasty and malicious caries with such a measure of villainy and repugnance that weaker members of the audience from lower grades would definitely look for a toothbrush for prevention. Unfortunately, as the production is officially deemed unsuitable for under-18s, there will not be a TIE tour for elementary schools.
Jana Slouková, A Date through Oral Perspective, houser.cz 2.3.2006