Photos from the performance
HaDivadlo, Brno
Ladislav Klíma: Human Tragikomedy (Lidská tragikomedie)
A work from the year 1928.
The World Premiere of the drama from the pen of the Titan of Czech nihilism.
Direction: Arnošt Goldflam
Stage Design: David Cajthaml
Costume Design: Jana Preková
Music: Jiří Bulis
Dramaturgy: Josef Kovalčuk, Miloš Černoušek (text correction, opera libretto)
Special consultation: Josef Zumr
Piano player: Michaela Polášková
Music recorded by: Jiří Bulis and Jan Beránek in the Bílý medvěd (White Bear) Studio
Technicians: Jan Horký (light), Karel Hanák (sound), Jiří Vlček (chief technician), Alexej Fendrich (props), František Pilný (production)
Stage Manager: Miroslav Kumhala
Premiere May 4, 1991, renewed premiere December 20, 1999
Performing:
Pulec - Gustav Řezníček
Kantorka - Miloslav Maršálek
Shoř - Břetislav Rychlík
Obnos, Small lajtnant - Hynek Chmelař
Odjinud - Cyril Drozda
Hubacius, Hubacius' son - Ján Sedal
Beránková, Doubravka (Čubštrejchna junior) - Marie Ludvíková
Brigita Shořová, Kurva - Nadia Stazio
Young constable, Young lokaj (servant) - Tomáš Matonoha or Marek Daniel
Constable obstarožník, Old lokaj (servant) - Josef Polášek
Big lajtnant - Miroslav Kumhala
Czech people in the pub - Tomáš Strašák and Miroslav Kumhala
Dog Hubert - Hubert
Žebračka Labutinka
The Setting:
Act I, Act II: "U hliněné podkovy" (At the Sodden Horseshoe), a pub in the village of Lanov. Act III: A park, which is now where the pub once stood.
The Time:
Act I: Final examination day for Pulec, Odjinud, Kantorka, Shoř and Obnos.
Act II: Thirty years later.
Act III: Still another twenty-five years later.
Ladislav Klíma (1878 - 1928)
Czech philosopher and writer. A type of philosopher - a poet from family of Diogenes, Empedokles or Socrates. The enemy to the traditional view of the world and the hierarchy of social values. As a thinker, he was on the border of subjective idealism. His timely inspirations, taken from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, resulted in quite an original mode of thinking: "egosoloism", "dioscience". These are Klíma's terms for expressing the idea of one passing himself as a god (in place of traditional God - the dead God of Nietzsche).
Above all, Klíma's philosophical works (Svět jako vědomí a nic, 1904; Traktáty a diktáty, 1922; Vteřina a věčnost, 1927) have a fragmentary, aphoristic form, made up of short thoughts.
The works of the writer are characterized by an explosion of poetic images. It is non-conventional, shocking and socially provocative.
Klíma's dramas originated in the 1920's. His theatre pieces are not very typical, but their dramatic feeling is a characteristic line of all of his literary expression, as well as the human existence of the world.
Klíma' s correspondence is also important.
In his time, Klíma very popular, well-known and supported by many representatives of Czech cultural elite. His friends included Otokar Březina, Emanuel Chalupný, F. X. Šalda, Jaroslav Kabeš, Josef Kodíček. On the contrary, to the general public, he was not well-known or given the cold shoulder. The new generation of the 1960's rediscovered him and his works. In the 1970's, he belonged to the group of the more copied authors known as the "samizdat (self-published works of the Communist era). Unfortunately, it seems that Klíma is also destined to become loved by several intellectual snobs. Even today, we have been witness to the huge interest of Klíma - primarily thanks to film adaptations. If this is just a wave, it will pass over us.
HaDivadlo returns to Klíma from an old love (and also from an old hate -Klíma's hate). We stay with the possibilities, the chaste ambition, to add to the authentic stream of Klíma's friends(…)
Klíma's plays are typical cases of, shall we say, the "book drama": the author does not pardon himself to write something beautiful, what happens when the pen hits the paper... While we tried to condense this work, we also tried to underline the actors' work, as well as the situations and languages, and in this way, the explication of the ideas "were awakened -not without saying".
-mč-
Text from the program published by HaDivadlo, Brno.