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National Theatre, Prague

2003

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Translation

6

4

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Notes:
Original Playwright - Iva Volankova

Synopsis:
The author wrote the text in the style of a musical composition - a polyphony of voices on the staircase of an old house, putting together fragments of the destinies of individual inhabitants. As adapted for this production, it was made more concrete and the story more topical; relationships between the characters were worked out in more detail and the setting changed to a gymnasium (used as a temporary refuge for the inhabitants of the house). The centre of attention is the "space" in which all the inhabitants are obliged to live together. The Woman walks through them and, from overheard scraps of conversation, micro-stories of the people living here are put together. In particular, she meets women who represent different stages of her life. The Woman thus looks at her own situation from the point of view of others' experience (she is deciding whether she wishes to go on meeting the Man). The ghost of the Pregnant Woman passes through the house; in the past, in fear of a difficult pregnancy, she threw herself under a car belonging to one of the inhabitants of the house. An Older Woman has solved nothing, she is locked into a childless marriage with "no cares"; perhaps only for her dog which is killed from jealousy by the lover she turned down years ago. The Lady comes from quite another time, a survivor from the old days who no longer wants to live in a world she doesn't understand and which doesn't understand her. Their adversaries are the men: Man, Her Man, Gentleman, Doctor and the homosexual couple Young Man and Older Man. The life stories flow side by side, or only slightly mesh together. At the end the lovers make up their quarrels, the man guilty of the road accident owns up in front of everyone, and the marital triangle reaches reconciliation

theatre Rokoko, Prague

2005

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Translation

7

4

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Notes:
Original Playwright - Iva Volankova. In 2002, the play received the prestigious award - 2nd Place in an anonymous competition for the best original theatre play (Alfréd Radok´s Award).

Synopsis:
As the title indicates, the play takes place in the present day. In the center of the action, we find Olga, Masha and Irina, characters that the author has pointed out. Olga is a cynical, spiteful old maid with neurotic affectations, and haunted by erotic thoughts. Irina is even more cynical (in opposite to Chekhov´s character), playing sexual games in public with her monumental lover. We also find Masha in the crisis - she has just had an abortion and has resigned herself from everything. In addition, she is trying to resolve the issue of artificial insemination - it's unnaturalness simply disgusts her. However, the sisters´ world is of course not only complicated by their internal problems, but also by external attacks: a fire brigade during their training exercises invades the sisters´ garden; a mysterious man with a hat leaves a suspicious box; and Václav Klaus "personally" telephones day-care worker Luisa (like a million other Czechs during his last election campaign). Masha´s husband cannot become director of his school because he was a collaborator with the Communist secret police. On the radio, we learn about a hostage-taking incident where "hundreds of hostages" are detained by Chechen terrorists, and poisoned by some unknown gas during an unsuccessful liberation attempt. The only characters that seemingly do not allow themselves to be pulled from the world are Andrej (much younger than Chekhov´s character), who does not come out at all from his room where he to always be playing computer games, and the Father - a retired general who has decided not to communicate with anyone. Everything is intertwined in the resulting apocalypse where everything is annihilated. It is not possible to live normally in today's world with today's information. The world is neither for men nor for women - and certainly not for children. The apocalypse of course occurs also on the television, while the characters sit in the garden and "roast hotdogs".

theatre HaDivadlo , Brno

2002

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Play/Drama

3

2

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Notes:
Original Playwright - Iva Volankova

Synopsis:
The Minach Trilogy is a loosely connected set of three one-act plays, existentially harmonised probes into the intimacy of human relations seen from the point of view of a woman. Minach, the first part, is made of a dialogue (really a monologue) of the Sister with her silent Brother, and a conversation of the Sister with her lover Ludwig. The siblings are bound by incest and a shared guilt for the death of their parents. Their lives are so bound together that one cannot exist without the other. The Brother bullies the Sister through his silence. The relationship between Brother and Sister is devastated by the presence of Ludwig "the man from next door" who is visiting the Sister. Ludwig is for her the only and last opportunity to begin to live a normal life, butthe Sister does not show it. The second part, Head or Tails? is a fantasising little game. Here the Woman is here that which determines what will happen, and how. She has at her disposition, Man - the puppet. By naming the Man differently, she creates his various characters. At first she creates Harold, and when she is tired of his docility, she changes him into Edgar, but not even he is without problems, and so, discontented, she creates a new man. The figure of Ludwig emerges. The Future of My I is a dialogue between the mortally sick Woman 1, whose husband has moved her to the country, and a paid nurse, Woman 2, who is leased by the man until the patient dies. The destinies of the two women encounter each other, on the one hand anxiety from the ending of life, longing still to belong to her husband, and on the other a promising future, that she will maybe begin a new life with the money earned nursing the sick.