2024-04-06 01:40:53
The Dejvické Theater in Prague wants to follow up on the success of last year’s transmission of the show Clogged System to cinemas. This Sunday, he will send another of his successful productions, The Elegance of Molecules, to cinemas. The play about the Czech scientist Antonín Holé was written and directed by Petr Zelenka. There is a lot of interest in Sunday’s live broadcast, there are only free tickets left in Prague.
The transmission of Elegance of Molecules from the Dejvický Theater is broadcast by 170 cinemas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, tickets cost 350 crowns.
In Prague, there are only tickets left for the Sunday screening for Cinema 35 at the French Institute. Two cinemas in Brno or those in Pilsen and Český Brod are also sold out. On the other hand, the majority of tickets are left in, for example, Havířov or Kutná Hora. There are also plenty of free tickets in Slovak cinemas.
The Elegance of the Molecule premiered at the Dejvice Theater in the spring of 2018. It brings the audience closer to the life of one of the most important chemists of the 20th century, Antonín Holé, who lived from 1936 to 2012. The play examines the creation and dramatic industrial development of substances from Czech chemical laboratories that today treat AIDS in more than 80 percent of patients worldwide. Holý was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times for his discoveries.
Director Zelenka mixes real characters with fictional ones in an initially non-dramatic life story and looks for drama. Experts from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic were his expert advisers when writing.
“Zelenko managed to get the most out of the not-so-dramatic material. He ingeniously combines documentary elements with fiction, clearly plays with time planes, relieves the seriousness of the topic with casual humor and a cynical smirk. He does not intentionally renounce even subtle pathos and sentiment,” wrote critic Saša Hrbotický in the review . According to him, the production is exciting, entertaining and does not allow the viewer to breathe.
Martin Myšička in the role of Antonín Holé. | Photo: Hynek Glos
Martin Myšička played the main role of Holé, Ivan Trojan, Veronika Khek Kubařová, Pavel Šimčík and Zdeňka Žadníková also perform.
Dejvické divadlo, whose performances have been of enormous interest for a long time, wants to bring its work to a wider public through direct transmissions to cinemas. Last year, last year’s long-sold out production of the Clogged System was broadcast live to cinemas, which was attended by 32,999 viewers in 129 cinemas. According to the organizers, it thus became the most visited live broadcast of a theater performance in the Czech Republic.
Lukáš Průdek has been managing the film scene since this year, who also sees a business opportunity in cinema broadcasts. Even before taking office, he warned that due to the reduction of the state budget deficit, there would be difficult times for culture. “And Dejvické divadlo can have an edge over other theaters in that it can be less dependent on public funds,” Průdek mentioned broadcasts to cinemas as one of the ways to get more money for Dejvické divadlo.
The difference between last year’s and this year’s project is that, while the Congested System was the latest, the Elegance of Molecules will not disappear from the repertoire after Sunday’s broadcast. “The main purpose is the accessibility of the audience to the Dejvický theater. That hall has 150 seats. Even though we travel all over the country and play in larger halls, there is still an overpressure of interest and people do not have the opportunity to get into that theater,” explained Průdek this week in Akcent radio show.
According to him, the cinema is still relatively close to visiting the theater. “By the fact that it is a shared experience, the audience will come there together, it is here and now, an unrepeatable moment. We found this so interesting that we would like to continue it,” he added.
Průdek is not worried that people would get fed up because of the transmission of the Elegance of Molecules and then stop going to the theater. “When you watch a documentary about flying in a balloon, it doesn’t make you feel that you never want to fly in a balloon again, but on the contrary, you want to fly in that balloon because you saw it in the documentary and it’s beautiful,” Průdek compares, who would like the transmission of the Elegance of Molecules to bring even more people to the Dejvický Theater.
Video: Trailer from the production Elegance of Molecules
The Elegance of the Molecule will be shown in 170 cinemas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Sunday. | Video: Aerofilms