10.9.1976
Grew up in Olomouc, where he also started his
theatre career as an actor at the Moravian Theatre. In 2002 he
graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in
Prague as film and TV director with the film Adam and Eve (Adam a Eva)
produced directly by the Czech TV in 2001. His first feature movie,
Such a Normal Little Family (Taková normální rodinka) (2008) was just
released for cinema theatres. He works for theatre with the same
intensity: already his first play, Conversations about Happiness
between Four Eyes, he produced and directed at the Theatre Faculty
Theatre DISK in Prague, was very successful. Immediately after
graduating he co-founded a private theatre company Studio Dva (Studio
Two) with the theatre producer Michal Hrubý. The company has produced
since many well-known plays from the world repertory, such as The
Graduate, Open Marriage, Autumn Sonata), offering acting opportunity to
important Czech actors and actresses in the leading roles (Summer of
Personalities programme). In 2006 he wrote a new play for his Studio, a
"radical comedy" Klára and Bára, that was very successful with the
audiences.
LIST OF PLAYS:
/ Rozhovory o štěstí mezi čtyřma očima (Conversations about Happiness between Four Eyes), 2004, première 29.2.2004, DISK Prague
/ Večírek na Seině, A Soirée on the Seine, 2005, première 3.3.2005, Divadlo Viola, Prague
/ Klára a Bára (Klára and Bára), 2006, première 24.6.2006, Studio Dva, Švandovo divadlo Prague
ROZHOVORY O ŠTĚSTÍ MEZI ČTYŘMA OČIMA / CONVERSATIONS ABOUT HAPPINESS BETWEEN FOUR EYES
4 men, 4 women
A grotesquely bitter tragic-comedy in three situations
In this play. performed for the first time by DAMU students in the DISK
Theatre, three scenes from three different lives lived in partnership
are linked by a theme of a piece of domestic furniture, a new model of
sofa from a furniture megastore. The author shows the protagonists in
interior settings where situations are coming to a head.
In
the first scene, a young man called Provázek enters a trap prepared for
him by a mentally ill "childhood friend" Kamila, who makes the excuse
of putting together a new sofa, but who wants to make him return to her
come what may. Their encounter leads to another of Kamila's
unsuccessful suicide attempts.
In the second
scene, the everyday altercations of a married couple are only a cover
for far worse quagmires: Tomáš's acting partner and lover hides under
the sofa. The appearance of a half-naked rival is the last straw for
Tomáš's hard working wife Tereza, possessed by inferiority complexes.
Tomáš understands there is no way back and leaves Tereza.
The
last piece takes place in the furniture store itself - more exactly in
the shop window, where the newly-marrieds Pavel and Pavla compete for a
"fully furnished flat" with a marathon persistence. However, two days
before achieving their aim, Pavel has a crisis. He realises that he has
married a dominant partner who will always get her own way. In the end
he is not able to leave his "cage" for fear that his place will be
taken by another...
Hartl's text reflects
situations in relationships between dominant women and eternally
apologetic young men, who feel they will never fulfil the women's
demands. He does not moralise, does not look for a way out - he merely
investigates it.
"In
spite of his youth, Hartl is an intuitively sensitive writer who does
not overburden his texts with words; he perceives the nuances of
contemporary familiar language as one of the supporting pillars of his
work, but discreetly, and on a high level. (...) Some measure of
psychotherapeutic instruction does not escape the more aware audience
members, just like the spontaneous optimism even in exalted tragedy.
And consequently: a four star evening - maybe even five!"
Tomáš Hejzlar: "V pražském DISKu uvedli světovou premiéru s příměsí psychoterapeutické sondáže", Haló noviny, 5.3.2004
KLÁRA A BÁRA / KLÁRA AND BÁRA
2 men, 2 women, 1 embryo
A radical comedy
This
contemporary marital comedy was written for Ivana Chýlková and Eva
Holubová, both belonging to the most popular Czech actresses of the
middle generation.
Klára and Bára are old
friends, as are their husbands, Pavel the composer and Jiří the
masseur; both couples are childless and keep meeting for special
occasions. By accident, the nervous and unstable teacher Bára witnesses
an intimate moment between her husband and slightly more charming Klára
at a joint dinner. A month later, Bára and Jiří are victims of an
incident. Their house burns down and they have to ask Klára and Pavel
to put them up for the time being. But the atmosphere of their joint
cohabitation quickly deteriorates and becomes very dense. Bára keeps
nagging her husband because of his affairs, while Klára tries to
overcome logistic problems in her house and make Pavel make love to her
to complete her gynaecological therapy. The situation peaks when Jiří
finds from the police his wife started the fire at their home, out of
revenge. Jiří has a heart attack and Bára overdoses on medicines soon
afterwards. But even after that the four characters are still linked
together: Bára and Pavel, who still does not suspect anything, get
closer and the latter is inspired in his music compositions by her
sensibility. Only later, Pavel finds out about Klára's affair with Jiří
having been preceded his own fling with Bára. A nightmare enters his
life: a larger-than-life embryo that keeps addressing him as daddy
adding it is not sure whether Pavel really is its natural father.
Through the feelings of guilt and pain, coupled with an occasional
"recreational" bit on the side in everyday life, the four characters
realise how much their original partner means for them. Their journey
is a complicated one (there is another suicide attempt by Bára) but the
general direction is clear. The four characters meet again at the New
Year's Eve party - they are all much wiser by now, and Klára is
pregnant on top of that.