2024-10-07 04:23:47
The first novelty of the season of the East Bohemian Theater in Pardubice will be the chamber psychological drama Zřít do tmy. The play with the subtitle Oedipus was written by contemporary German author Maja Zade, directed by Adam Svozil, and premieres this Saturday on a small stage. The production features Martina Sikorová, Josef Pejchal, Štěpán Pospíšil and Romana Chvalová.
The plot takes place in a holiday villa in Greece, where Christina, the owner of a chemical company, and her younger fiancé Michael are enjoying the sun and looking forward to the soon-to-be-born child. Suddenly, however, Christina’s brother Robert appears in the villa, who is not satisfied with the way Michael approaches the accident, in which toxic substances may have leaked into nature and for which the company bears responsibility.
Gradually, the generational gap between Michael, determined to investigate a potential ecological disaster at all costs, and Robert, whom the corporate culture prefers to sweep problems under the rug, becomes apparent. With the arrival of long-term employee Theresa, everything becomes even more complicated.
A conversational tragedy referring to the ancient myth of Oedipus, it explores how life can change fundamentally in a second. “Maji Zade’s fast-paced and, given the subject matter, surprisingly funny play is thematically interesting to me,” says director Adam Svozil. “She is very critical of the current economic elites and the way in which we are building, or rather not building much, to the fundamental challenges of today, be it the climate crisis, the pension system, or the housing crisis and so on,” she enumerates in an interview on the theater’s website.
According to him, people know what is at stake and yet ignore the problems of today. “Like the characters in this game, we are rather stumbling from nothing to nothing. Our horizon is dictated by the logic of deregulated capitalism, which means that any solution would actually be very costly, so bad luck, the current state will continue, although we suspect that it will end a disaster,” believes Svozil.
The psychological drama Falling into Darkness had its world premiere in 2021 at the Greek Epidaurus Festival in Athens. Since September of the same year, the Berlin Schaubühne theater has been presenting it under the direction of the famous German director Thomas Ostermeier. In Pardubice, the production premieres this Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6, with the next reruns on October 10 and 23.