VERTIGO (ZÁVRAŤ)
3 M, 2 F, an ape
“Two paths lead to love. One is ordinary, direct and proper. The other one is bad, it goes through death; this is the way of a genius.” (Thomas Mann)
Vertigo tells a surreal story of an ordinary marriage. Ludvík and Ingrid are nervous – they expect visitors. Ludvík is trying to cool down next to an open window while Ingrid is suffering from vertigo and tells her husband about the encounter she had that very morning: at a supermarket, she met her favourite TV soap hero Tony the Heartbreaker, kept a pistachio shell she peeled off him and put her favourite cuddly monkey from a key ring into his pocket. The visitors arrive. They are an unmarried couple, René and Sylvie, and they are younger – especially when compared to the photographs they sent ahead via email. It transpires that something like a pre-arranged “swingers’ party” is expected to take place in Ludvík and Ingrid’s flat. At the beginning, René and Sylvie take more initiative and show more experience: first, they keep offending the older couple by their cynical wisdom; then, Ludvík and Ingrid let themselves to be manipulated by both young people. As Sylvie lures Ludvík away from the sitting-room, René massages Ingrid’s feet. Alcohol strengthens Ingrid’s proclivity to vertigo and René takes advantage of the fact to encourage her to liberate her suppressed love. After the act, Sylvie returns to the room on her own: she claims Ludvík took refuge on the balcony after an unsuccessful attempt at lovemaking. Sylvie maintains their flat has no balcony. In her dizziness, though, she ends up believing (or is it all a dream?) that Ludvík is getting ready to jump down from the balcony; desperately trying to save him, Ingrid bangs on the wall behind which the balcony – according to Sylvie – is supposed to be hidden. Following this climax, Ludvík returns – he is all wet, as he had to take a bath in a fountain down on the square to cool down after having heard Ingrid’s and René’s amorous passion. Ingrid towels up Ludvík in motherly fashion; then they begin to dance together and go out into streets (or perhaps onto the balcony?). Enter Tony the Heartbreaker with an ape who dances for him.
The play won the First Prize at the prestigious Alfréd Radok 2010 Playwriting Award Competition.
LADDER CROSS-STITCH – a Folk Song (AŽURA – das Volkslied)
M 2, F 2
tragicomedy about understanding
“I thought God created us so that we would understand each other.”
The starting point of this play seems to be well known in drama. Two young couples meet in a small flat and, during a more or less formal conversation over a drink, their relationship get more and more complex while the forgotten problems between the characters come to the fore. In an appartment somewhere in Germany, Ina starts a conversation with her husband Jan (both are Czechs in their thirties, she is a fragile woman, he an educated, principled man) and a mixed nationality couple of the forty years old German Uve and his new French attractive and regal girlfriend in her thirties, Claris. Jan had invited Uve, his workplace colleague and friend, not realising he would also bring Claris whom neither Ina nor Jan know personally. As Ina only speaks Czech and cannot understand a word of what the others are saying, this fact alone could bring about a series of scenes full of embarrassing and forced dialogue.
But it is misunderstanding itself that constitutes almost Kundera-like wit of the piece. The ironic subtitle calls the play a “folk song” – as each of the characters keeps “singing” his or her own tune. Ina only understands her husband, they speak Czech together and she is unable to get used to life in Germany. Jan and Uve speak in German, Uve and Claris speak in French as Claris has no German. Of course, the audience hears them all speaking in Czech language the play is written in. Over a glass of wine, a conversation full of hypocrisy, misunderstandings and failures to communicate evolves. Uve talks loudly to Jan about Claris being a one-night stand acquaintance presuming neither Claris or Ina understand him. Uve and Claris mistakenly think Ina is a painter while she only kills time cross-stitching. Jan thinks Ina is trying to get used to life in Germany while he is at work whereas his wife just sits around at home full of melancholy. Uve has to go to see his wife unexpectedly and tries to solve the situation by talking to Jan in front of his lover he is deceiving.
While Ina suddenly leaves to go somewhere else and Uve had left to talk to his wife, the play turns on its head: Claris surprises Jan by telling him she can speak German and is just enjoying the lies by Uve who ignores the fact. Gradually we find out Claris and Jan had had a relationship some time ago in Paris; the relationship brought about a child (Jan did not know about its existence until now), something Ina desires in vain for such a long time. Uve finds out about Ina’s deception, and leaves angry probably to join his wife. Jan finds out about Ina’s cross-stitching and sends his wife to bed. Finally, Jan and Claris go away to look at their baby while Jan brings along a piece of Ina’s ladder cross-stitch.
One of the walls on the stage serves for projection of words in four languages that are being contested by the script, such as Love, Friendship, Trust, Tolerance, Faithfulness and Understanding...
The script won the 2nd prize at the Alfréd Radok Competition for the best original Czech or Slovak play for 2008.