2024-10-03 02:51:34
Daša and Anna live a relatively ordinary life. One works in the gym, the other in the library. Since they are forever without money and owe rent, they find a boy from Zlín as a roommate. However, it turns out to be a cocaine dealer. When he accidentally dies in the shower, the goods he came to Prague to sell end up in the girl’s hands.
In the rap musical called Night of Broken Nails, which is newly presented by Prague’s Divadlo pod Palmovkou, a night full of unexpected twists, absurd denouements and cocaine rush follows. Both the gang war in the drug underworld and the ancient love triangle between rival mobsters and a drug addict shine through.
The novelty of the Libeň scene raised expectations beforehand, because the lyrics of the songs were written by Adam Svatoš aka Kato, the frontman of the hip-hop group Prago Union. At the same time, this is another project of the award-winning playwright and director Tomáš Dianiška, who can build an entire play out of catchy quotes and pop culture quotes of the 90s of the last century, including B-movies and trash.
Dianiška has already extracted historical realities, for example from the time of the Nazi occupation. He always deals with them in an authorial way, with a specific humor on the edge of parody, and thus is referred to as a hitmaker with a guaranteed recipe for a well-made play from modern Czech history. He usually writes and directs his projects, and at the same time plays in Palmovka. However, the tremendous productivity of the thirty-nine-year-old artist, who started in Liberec and today moves from one scene to another at jet speed, is also in danger of burning out or at least falling into a stereotype.
The downward trend was evident in Dianišk’s productions of the Encyclopaedia of Action Film on the home stage, last year’s Pravomil in Prague’s Dlouhá or Téle tajné agentka, presented by the Klicper Theater in Králové Hradec Králové. As if he needed a restart or a new impulse, Dianiška then started the last season in Palmovce by returning to his peers from Liberec, from where Barbora Kubátová and Jakub Albrecht came to Prague. Together in Libni, they presented a theatrical version of a blog about life with a cultural journalist called Woman of the Film Critic. She confirmed that her colleagues hear Dianik’s poetics much better than actors from other theaters and that despite the stylization of their characters, they do not lose their plasticity or believability. In addition, both protagonists have matured into distinct personalities over the years.
In addition to The Woman of the Film Critic, the plot of the relationship drama also appeared in the National Collection of Bad Habits. This year, Dianiška created it with the new circus troupe Losers Cirque Company, thereby stepping outside the usual theater horizon for the first time. The second step aside can now be considered Night of Broken Nails. Although in many ways it bears the characteristic features of the author’s poetics, it is driven by rap. Both projects are connected by the name of co-author Lenka Veverková, the new dramaturg of the Theater under Palmovka.
The heroines were portrayed by the new faces of the Libeň scene, Lucie Michálková and Kateřina Hrdinová. | Photo: Martin Špelda
Dianiška once again cites all conceivable genre stereotypes such as Trainspotting directed by Danny Boyle, Podfu(c)k by Guy Ritchie or Shameful pancharti by Quentin Tarantino. Their most tense moment is reminiscent of the climactic scene of the production, a mob shootout with the repeating refrain “Don’t aim at me, don’t aim at me”, in which the use of rap finally gets its justification.
With similar motifs of rap and cocaine punching, the musical reminds of the previous year’s Czech film Banger. Nevertheless, the audio series of Dianiška and Vaverková called Snow Whites and Gangsters, significantly reworked for theatrical needs, served as the model for Night of Broken Nails.
The resulting form is closest to a parody. Above all, Night of Broken Nails wants to entertain at all costs. However, it overflows with ideas and textual digressions that unnecessarily complicate and delay the basic story line. The first part has to gradually introduce everyone involved, and so it flows clumsily until the break. After her, the development of events takes a bigger turn.
However, not all of Dianik’s typical statements have lightness and a point. Quite often, they push the saw unnecessarily and in the first place with complete banalities. This deprives the play of a deeper undertone that was always present in his works despite the humor.
Unfortunately, the characters seem like flat-out caricatures. It’s hard to say if the script, direction or performers are to blame. Some play with such exaggeration that their performance is unbearable in the conditions of a theater that does not have a second gallery – like guest Karolína Baranová, rapping and playing for her life. Basically, the only one who was able to find the exact degree of exaggeration in his figure of Zlín drug mafia Viktor is Jan Teplý. Although Ivana Wojtylová also performs well in the role of the mother and owner of the apartment inhabited by the heroines.
The night of broken nails began the Liben scene of the 77th season, the subtitle of which is The Transformations of Palmovka, and it is accompanied by significant changes in the ensemble.
Some of the newcomers, mostly recent graduates of acting schools, are already being screened by Dianiška’s production, including Kateřina Hrdinová and Lucie Michálková in the lead roles. Another newcomer, Teodor Dlugoš, seems unnecessarily inconspicuous, but Petr Reif succeeded in the role of a mafia boss.
Rap is not appearing on Czech stages for the first time, for example the staged concert Crazy Herkules as part of the festival Antikke Štvanice worked with it, on which the experimental rap duo P/st collaborated. In the case of Palmovka, it is interesting that the ensemble here is increasingly leaving the comfort zone of the spoken word. At the beginning of the year he sang in Prodaná věstá, now the actors are rapping and there is a band on stage with them.
The idea of a rap musical is not to be thrown away, but the implementation was marked by the problems of the pioneers. There is a lack of a clearer and not only a surface pattern. Quite possibly even more experienced actors, on whom local productions have always built. Despite all the reservations, it will probably be a successful title for the audience, but artistically it remains in the shadow of more ambitious items in the local repertoire.
Theater
Lenka Veverková, Jan Hanzlík and Tomáš Dianiška: The Night of Broken Nails
Director: Tomáš Dianiška
Divadlo pod Palmovkou, Prague, premiere on September 20, written from the rerun on September 23, the nearest reruns on October 4 and 16.