2024-09-08 14:16:33
This Friday, the Drama Club in Prague opened its 60th jubilee season with a production of Nikolay Vasilevich Gogol’s comedy The Players, which is related to his history. One of the three completed plays of the Russian classic was staged in 1982 by the theater’s founder Ladislav Smoček with actors Josef Abrhám, Jiří Kodet and Petr Nárožný.
The player was then presented by the Drama Club as one of its most successful pieces for almost ten years, during which time it saw 223 reruns.
The current production, which will have its next rerun on September 30 after the second premiere on Sunday, was directed by Lukáš Brutovský. He cast actors Ondřej Rychlý, Jan Hájek, Martin Finger, Vasil Fridrich, Vladimír Kratina, Jakub Burýšek or Viktor Zavadil in it. The sons of actor Vladimír Dlouhé, twins Jan and Jiří, will appear on this stage for the first time in the roles of Alexej and Gavrilka.
In the play, a successful fake card player Icharev arrives at a hotel in an unnamed city to turn over a lot of money. He has been looking for his next victim for almost a month. So he can hardly hold back when he discovers that a group of three other players are operating in the hotel. But they are perhaps much better than it seems at first glance.
The game from 1842 asks what a person is willing to do to win, what they can count on, what role chance plays or how much you can rely on your own abilities.
In addition to the September premiere, three other new productions await the audience. “Not only the dramaturgy itself and the choice of directors, but also other accompanying events in the 60th season reflect the tendency to respect the traditions and name of the Drama Club, while being a contemporary theater,” says the theater’s artistic director, actor Martin Finger.
According to him, the jubilee season will have everything he wants to achieve in the long term with his colleagues in an inflated form. “In dramaturgy, author’s texts written directly for us, new plays in Czech premieres and classic dramas in a contemporary guise,” he summarizes.
In December, director Tomáš Dianiška will present a play with the working title První damy at the Drama Club. At the end of February 2025, a modern adaptation of Ibsen’s Heda Gablerová, directed by Jiří Havelka, will premiere here. In June, the production of the play Commune by Thomas Vinterberg and Morgens Rukov, directed by Ondřej Sokol, will end the season.
Spectators can also look forward to other events. Already this month, a staged reading of the Spanish play Fitzroy by Jordi Galcerán will take place in the Drama Café in collaboration with the Cervantes Institute. The theater will also participate in the Experience Smečky differently event, as part of which a traditional bazaar and concert will be held in the cafe on September 21.
In the coming months, there will be staged readings of texts written directly for the Drama Club or from the author’s creations of the local ensemble. There will also be screenings of plays that resonated significantly during the 60 years of the ensemble’s existence and were recorded on film. The screening will be complemented by discussions and guests. There will be concerts by personalities associated with the theater and a podcast series that will map the 60th anniversary from different angles.
Actor Vasil Fridrich’s first talk show will start in November as part of Freedom Week. The public holiday, November 17, will then be dedicated to the celebration of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which, in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library, will also include a book launch and culminate in a concert by actress Bára Hrzánová. Two days later, it will be followed by a Czech TV shoot dedicated to the anniversary of the Civic Forum, which was founded 35 years ago in the Drama Club.
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