2024-08-16 21:36:53
The stage adaptation of the film Teoréma, made in 1968 by the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, will be presented next month at Prague’s Divadlo v Dlouhá. Actors Matyáš Řezníček, Pavel Batěk and Klára Oltová will present themselves in the story about a mysterious stranger who will change the opinions of all members of a middle-class household.
Pasolini first filmed Theorem, after which he developed it in the form of a novel. Jakub Čermák, who is directing the show, wrote the script based on his theme, together with Marta Ljubková. The premiere of Teoréma will open the new season of the Theater in Dlouhá on September 14, before the first rerun on September 16, there will be a discussion with the creators.
In Theorem, a mysterious guest arrives at the house of a middle-class family, who establishes an intimate kind of relationship with everyone. “He brings an extraordinary feeling to the arid environment of a stereotype without a goal. With a single act, he changes the lives of everyone: a father, a capable businessman, a lonely mother, a virgin daughter, an insecure son and an uprooted maid. After his departure, nothing is the same,” the creators of the production advise.
Pasolini cast actresses Silvana Mangano and Anne Wiazemsky with Terence Stamp and Massimo Girotti in the 1968 film. Music composed by Ennio Morricone. The image with the features of a myth touches on basic Christian questions, as well as the meaning of art and creation. “He searches for the meaning of love and fulfillment in life, he subverts conventions, and at the same time he is gentle, sensitive and mysterious. He brings a world of images, a world in which words have no meaning, because we finally have to let our hearts speak,” describe the creators of the current adaptation.
According to dramaturg Ljubková, Teoréma deals with what happens when a person lives in a certain position so contentedly that he no longer even questions whether it would be possible to exist otherwise. “And suddenly something happens in your life that completely changes your perspective,” suggests Ljubková. He also reminds that there was only minimal talking in Pasolini’s film. “Through this, we decided to inspire and not overwhelm our production with language,” he adds.
In addition to Teoréma, next month Divadlo v Dlouhá will present, for example, the production Don Juan and I, which premiered at the end of May. This comedy by contemporary playwright and mathematician René Levínský was created directly for the Divadlo v Dlouhé. In October, the program will include, for example, A Long Day into Night, The End of a Red Man, Elektra or In the Jungle of Cities by Bertolt Brecht.
The director Jakub Čermák is a prominent figure in the Czech theater, since its foundation he has been at the forefront of the Depressed Children Desire for Money association, which regularly presents its productions in Venus in Švehlovka. In 2022, Čermák won the Divadelní noviny prize in the category of alternative theater for the production of Happy end at the Chateau Switzerland hotel, and added another a year later for the Trojan women project. He will be directing in Dlouhá for the first time.
Video: Trailer from the movie Theorem
In the movie Theorem, the arrival of a guest completely changes the value orientation of the members of the family of a rich factory owner. | Video: British Film Institute