Photos from the performance
Petr Nikl sailed into the Archa Theatre on his Kayak
Visual artist, puppeteer and performer Petr Nikl has returned to the Archa Theatre with his performance entitled Upside Down (Vzhůru nohama). Light, fire, water and darkness are the basic elements of his performance-happenings. Thanks to their combinations and contrasts as well as with the assistance of collaborators and friends, he creates dreamy environments. In this way, he discovers puppetry, visual objects and simple mechanisms.
His performances don't have a unity, nor a straight line of action; they do not accept the rules of theatre, but the rules of a happening. This above all due to the fact that Nikl is a visual artist (as holder of Jindřich Chalupecký Award). The performance splits into small "events", extraordinary moments filled with the great strength of an art-poetry. It is as if it came from out of nowhere; from the half-gloom and quiet; it shines for only a moment, to be lost there, presently, from where it came - in the world of the memories of a lost countryside (as is so typical for Nikl), it is a recollection of childhood. The congenial and extraordinary music of Irena and Vojtěch Havel, performing live and for the most part improvising, helped to create a thin, yet maximum atmosphere of solitude.
Upside Down (Vzhůru nohama) meant, if I am allowed to pass judgement, an imaginary step ahead in terms of Nikl's theatrical work. In contrast to his last performance, it was not merely an inconspicuous movement, animator and "conductor", but... he encountered two similar "mobilized" colleagues as central characters of the evening. With the assistance of the light - he guided the reflector, so the audience could see, and, still more open than the last performance, he received some impulses (he also sang). Unlike his last performance, there were not so many projections (video and shadow), which helped the unity of the action, as well as the attention of the audience. Upside Down generally presented a shift toward theatre (even perhaps the most theatrical character, the "bride" on stilts, was an element that was rather disturbing, in part the fault of the cramped display...), without taking anything away from its typical tempo and poetry.
It is good and praiseworthy, that not only Petr Nikl, but also for example improvisation of Vizita Theatre of Jaroslav Dušek and Alan Vitouš or the clear puppet performance Piškanderdulá of Věra Říčařová and František Vítek, are finding their space, time and place in the Archa.
Jakub Škorpil, Denní Telegraf, 13. 6. 1997