A Theatre Rendezvous

A report on the Cultural Developmental Exchange between the Czech Republic and Canada by Don Nixon with short reviews of two of the productions from the Czech Season in Canada (2003) by I. Nepomnyaschii

Don Nixon:

The Czech Republic has always held a strong fascination with Canadian culture. In 2002, the Canadian Season in Prague, which is the first part of the largest cultural-exchange project to date between Canada and the Czech Republic, provided Czech audiences with their first glimpse of the current state of contemporary Canadian theatre and dance. Now, the Czech Season in Canada is presenting contemporary Czech theatre and dance productions across Canada.

In 2001, several notable figures from the cultural and performing arts communities in Prague were invited to attend the Six Stages Festival in Toronto. The experience of witnessing first-hand the productions presented at the festival led to the creation of the Canadian Season in Prague the following year.

The Canadian Season in Prague was greatly affected by the floods that swept through the Czech Republic in August 2002. Many productions had to be rescheduled, relocated, postponed, and even cancelled. The Archa Theatre, which was to provide the performance space for approximately half of the productions comprising the Canadian Season in Prague, was completely devastated by the flooding. Although the festival coordinators in Prague took immediate action to locate alternate venues, it was difficult because the floods had some affect on all Prague theatres. Moreover, the technical capabilities of the alternate venues and the availability of artists forced some productions, such as In On It and Circa, to be postponed indefinitely. The program for the Canadian Season in Prague, after cancellations and postponements, included Somalia Yellow performed by One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, Tedd Robinson and Ru Padolsky's dance productions Rigmarole and Recruiting Recalcitrance, Sarah Chase's dance productions Lamont Earth Observatory and muzz, a world premiere by La La La Human Steps, a presentation and workshop by Rector Verso, a presentation on contemporary Canadian theatre by professor Robert Wallace, and a seminar about dance criticism by Max Wyman and Susan Mertens. Almost 2500 spectators saw the Canadian performances and attended the workshops over the course of three weeks.

As preparation for the Czech Season in Canada, the Theatre Institute in Prague collaborated with the Canada Arts Council to send nine artists from various Canadian performing arts organizations, along with representatives from the Canada Arts Council, to Prague in order to attend performances of contemporary Czech theatre. The purpose of this visit was to introduce the Canadian delegation to the youngest generation of talented Czech theatre artists and dancers and to spark further collaboration between the arts communities in both countries. Such collaborations include the addition of more than fifty different Canadian plays to the library of the Theatre Institute in Prague with the aid of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Canada Arts Council. This year more Canadian plays will be added to the institute's library.

During January and February of this year three Czech theatre companies performed in several Canadian cities. Kristyna Lhotáková and Ladislav Soukop were the first to take to the Canadian stage with their performance of Venus with a Rubik's Cube (Venuše s rubikovou kostkou) at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, Alberta. The High Performance Rodeo is the oldest festival of its type in Canada, presenting a broad range of alternative art. This year the program included appearances by Philip Glass and Marie Chouinard. Venus with a Rubik's Cube was also performed at the Now Showing Festival in Lethbridge, Alberta; the Tangente Festival in Montréal, Québec; and at the Six Stages Festival in Toronto, Ontario. In Montréal, Lhotáková and Soukop had the opportunity to share their experiences during a workshop with local choreographers and dancers.

The production I Know You (Já vím, kdo jsi), directed by Halka Třešňáková and featuring Jakub Hradílek, Jan Bárta, and Pavel Ondruch, was performed at the Rhubarb! Festival, now in its twenty-fifth season. The festival, which has traditionally presented new Canadian alternative and queer works, deviated from its usual programming to host an international company for the first time. The five-day run of I Know You was sold out. Unit Theatre also performed Talkmen (Mluviči) for patrons waiting in line for other performances at the Rhubarb! Festival.

I. Nepomnyaschii:

About 500 Canadian spectators saw Czech theatre artists and dancers in action during their visit to Toronto. I was one of them and attended both Venus with a Rubik's Cube and I Know You. Although my knowledge of Czech theatre is of a theoretical nature, my sixth sense tells me that what I saw was an example of truly Czech theatre — improvisational, physical, based on visual codes, and reliant more on an actor's onstage presence than on the text pronounced.

Kristyna Lhotáková and Ladislav Soukop's Venus with a Rubik's Cube is not a traditional narrative about the eternal struggle for dominance between a man and a woman. Instead, it is a moving tableau and the presentation of bodies against the background provided by a space and an object. In this instance, the space was the Artworld Theatre and the object was a cello. The physicality of the actors draws attention to itself because of its challenging iconicity. HE (Ladislav Soukop) is in a business suit, absolutely protected, while SHE (Lhotáková) is in a bikini, almost naked and therefore unprotected. Her major actions reveal the bare skin of experience, and the body entering the contemporary world, which is polluted by the artificiality of material things, indifferent objects, and technology. Her initial lack of clothing is underlined as she provocatively undresses during the piece. SHE takes off her high-heeled shoes, strips off her fake eyelashes, washes off her bright lipstick, and removes her bikini top. Her strip show ends with demonic movements that suggest a machine falling apart. However, if in the world of technology, "undressing" can be read as the loss of power (Imagine your computer catching a virus the result of which is the complete exposure of your computer to a stranger.), in the human world, the power games never end. In the world of homo culturalis undressing is a statement of sustained power, suppressed energy, and insubordination.

I do not want to suggest that there is only a feminist reading of this production. However, the balance between the fully covered male body that moves slowly and the almost naked female one that dashes desperately around the stage suggests this interpretation. For example, Venus with a Rubik's Cube could have a strictly theatrical interpretation. The action of the play is reminiscent of a rehearsal. HE represents the despotic director, while SHE is the numerous actors dependent on his will. HE is therefore the artist and the god of the theatrical world. He is the master of creation and the father of Venus, who is the stage figure created by Lhotáková. This reading ties into the worship of the artist, who is a divine absolute. SHE is a product of his creation, which is why HE is given the cello. The cello represents the instrument of creation and, therefore, manipulation.

The Freudian elements permeating the production are concentrated in the image and stage figure of the cello, thereby suggesting the impersonality and aesthetic remoteness of the act of reproduction. She, however, opposes the passive nature of the cello because she has power over her own body. The final scene in which SHE takes off her bikini top and puts on a dress is a statement balancing the supremacy between bodies and object, male and female, the creator and the creation.

In Halka Třešňáková's I Know You a similar series of dichotomies is addressed through a mixture of improvisation reminiscent of stand-up comedy, physical theatre, and dance. Just as in Venus with A Rubik's Cube, the narrative element of I Know You is minimal. The basic outline of the production is given in the program notes and in improvised dialogues between the actors and the audience. The nature of the production echoes the traditions of commedia dell'arte, in particular lazzi, which are improvised speeches on set topics. The parallels between I Know You and commedia dell'arte are strengthened by the focus on the representation of three masks. The first mask is young and inexperienced, the second is old and a cuckold, and the third has lost every aspect of his identity. This aspect of Třešňáková's piece offers Canadian audiences a familiar paradigm of lost identity.

The highly semiotic presence of masks in I Know You and the nameless and mute constructs of HE and SHE in Venus with a Rubik's Cube link the two productions by their strivings toward universality. Moreover, the use of masks as a device of defamiliarization gives I Know You and Venus with a Rubik's Cube the opportunity to explore the impersonality of any human experience, when even the act of naming, which is the most personal action in creating a narrative, is reduced to “average.” The program notes for I Know You state:

I have a name just like every second person — the guy next to me, too. We are average — like everyone else. Only small differences in out fates — some people are a little more choleric, or perhaps lusting after appreciation in a more successful way, perhaps, younger, perhaps more playful. We also have the right to our desires and dreams. In spite of out commonness that appears uninteresting, still let us have the double portion of the horseradish for our pig's knuckle. (I Know You program notes)

The impersonality of existence is echoed in this production by the audience's introduction to each character. Each is initially represented while writing. Each mask writes something different, which suggests that each one inhabits a reality of his own creation and is limited to that particular world. Drunk and desperate, the first and youngest mask encounters life beyond his writing for the first time, but cannot satisfactorily interact with it. At the bar, the second and third masks pour all of their bitterness and dissatisfaction with experience into the first's drink, attempting to convey their realities to someone else. Ultimately there is no solution or exit offered in I Know You. The piece only conveys the absurdity of being through improvisation. A conclusion seems beside the point, however, especially since its primary goal was the questioning of accepted social constructs.

Don Nixon:

The next part of the Czech Season in Canada will include performances and a workshop by the Antena Theatre Company in collaboration with the Québec-based Rector Verso in May 2003. Later the improvisational theatre company Krepsko will embark on their own Canadian tour, which will include performances in St. John's, Newfoundland; Whitehorse, Yukon; and Vancouver, British Columbia. One more company, the dance troupe Deja Donne will perform at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario. The Archa Theatre will perform at the MAI Centre in Montréal this fall, and as a result of their well-received performances across Canada this year, Kristyna Lhotáková and Ladislav Soukop will return next year with a new production, Question for Last Year.

The Czech Season in Canada is ultimately a project of continuous exchange between the arts communities in Canada and the Czech Republic. Over the course of the year, the project will hopefully expand with more possibilities for Czech artists to visit and perform in Canada. For more information about the Czech Season in Canada and the Canadian Season in Prague, please visit www.czech-season.cz.

© Don Nixon
© I. Nepomnyaschii

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