Stage director, set and lighting concept: Robert Wilson Co-director / Ann-Christin Rommen Light design / AJ Weissbard Costumes / Yashi Libretto / Marta Ljubková Music / Ales Březina Set-design assistant / Karel Kut Video projection / Tomek Jeziorski Dramaturgy / Martin Urban Premiere April 30, 2014 Cast: Soňa Červená, Taťjana Medvecká, Pavla Beretová, Enik Eszenyi, Eva Salzmannová, Václav Postránecký, Filip Rajmont, Jan Bidlas, Vladimír Javorský, Ján Koleník, Radúz Mácha, Milan Stehlík + 4 musicians Partner theatres: Slovenské národní divadlo (Slovakia) Vígszínház (Hungary)
is a title of the new production that Robert Wilson, a star of the world theatre, and his team prepared for The Estates Theatre. After an enormous success of Čapek s Makropulos Case, the famous director is concentrating on other pieces that strongly address us, especially considering the coming anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. 1914 is based on Karl Kraus Last Days of Mankind and Jaroslav Hašek s Good Soldier Schweik. Soňa Červená will appear in a special role of the Time. Kraus + Hašek + Wilson = I was pleased and excited to work again at wonderful Narodni divadlo with the brilliant actors, technicians and staff for my production 1914. Bob Wilson
About the project Good Soldier Schweik, an iconic novel of the Czech literature, an ironic grin at war and at its absurdity exceeding human stupidity, meets an antiwar opus The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus in a new and creative way. All this, in hands of a magician of the modern theatre, is transformed in an up-to-date cabaret. This open form is full of impressive scenic visions, music and surprising humor, creating not only parable of 1914 but mainly about our life now and here, one hundred years after the beginning of that terrible war that in fact had opened the 20th century. An impressive show about optimists and pessimists (under the supervision of an omnipresent Time) is a unique project originating from already the second meeting of the elites of the Czech theatre and creators and trend-makers of the world theatre. This project of 1914 unifies several interesting aspects. First of all, it will take place in the year of commemoration of one hundred years after the beginning of the First World War a historical moment when the old Europe had shaken in its base, and a year when transformation into a new continent had became. The continent we are living at now. This historical period was reflected in an outstanding way by two crucial authors: by Czech writer and journalist Jaroslav Hašek (1883 1923) and Austrian poet, critique and essayist Karl Kraus (1874 1936). Both opuses seem to be incomparable nevertheless, they serve us as a base of a specific collage that pictures not only the history but also tries to see our present in this specific region of Central Europe that used to be an Austro-Hungarian Empire. We believe in artistic, not necessary realistic way of treating such a difficult topic, therefore we decided to invite an outstanding American avant-garde artist Robert Wilson. He belongs to the world most influential theatre artists, directors as well as set designers. We have already cooperated with him on Makropulos Case by Karel Čapek. This project goes further on in this collaboration.
Co-production Since the project is extremely complicated in many ways, and since we really wanted to incorporate former parts of the original Empire, we found two co-producers. Therefore more languages are heard on the stage and this way the original intention to make a show that somehow covers wider geographical field was fulfilled. Our natural partner is Slovak National Theatre of Bratislava it is the theatre of the same service and importance in Slovakia, as our theatre in the Czech Republic. The other partner is Hungarian Vígszínház of Budapest. It is a folk and art theatre with a strong and balanced company, which plays classical and contemporary Hungarian and foreign dramas of a wide range of genres and types. Since the project seems to hit the interest of many theatres as far as the topic is concerned, we have already received several invitations from various places: Belgrade (Serbia), Hamburg (Germany), Reims (France). The impact of the show is certainly European, as an enthusiastic response to our performance in Landestheater Linz (Austria) demonstrated. The project 1914 got special financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, International Visegrad Fund and Bohemian Heritage Fund. Bohemian Heritage Fund is dedicated to the protection and development of the cultural heritage and sights of the Czech Republic, to the support of cultural projects, and youth educational projects.
Selected press reviews The surprising aspect: Wilson s aestheticism realised here on stage with lemurs with flashy make-up, eccentric costumes, ( ) monochromatic, coloured walls filling the entire scene and stylized houses and interiors. This aestheticism does not create distance but burns into the minds of the audience like a nightmare. ( ) The insight of time is ( ): It will always become worse even when you think it is already at its worst. We learn nothing from history. Süddeutsche Zeitung Wilson mixes a profound evil with warm-hearted moments full of wit and tenderness. Often only some gestures and words suffice in order to demonstrate the raw cruelty of the gas warfare. DrehpunktKultur.at The play 1914 Wilson created for the National Theatre Prague thrives on oppositions: While hearing happy circus music you see war on the scene. Nearly everything is in shades of grey, the characters resemble paper cuts only now and then a fiery red face or a green elbow appear briefly on stage. Wilson requires high amounts of precision from his performers (as from the technology), who are without exception magnificent. Almost every character is characterised by its own body language. Kronen Zeitung The impressive ensemble that is composed of 12 people wearing field grey costumes, with white and flashy make up, sometimes play slapstick or like in a slow motion movie on an absurd and comic, spartan scene of horror. Neues Volksblatt Linz Wilson has created an inspired Gesamtkunstwerk: with carefully selected text passages, an almost cheerful-merry approach to horror, a playful undertone and artful images such as stylising chemical warfare but not actually depicting it. He draws the characters in a manner that could be straight out of a Wilhelm Busch comic-book. The famous Kraus duo, the Pessimist and the Optimist, act like the slapstick icons Laurel and Hardy. nachrichten.at But now Wilson has conceived a really fresh, skin-crawling work: 1914, for the Prague National Theatre (in co-operation with houses in Bratislava and Budapest), an entertaining and disturbing (anti) war Revue. (...) However, the important thing is the exact mixture; Wilson couples abysmally evil, cynicism with warm moments of wit and tenderness. A few gestures and a few words suffice to show all the cruelty of chemical warfare. TirolerTageszeitung Seeing the familiar Central European space and ourselves through the eyes of the American modernist is an experience that may tell us more about ourselves than we are willing to admit. Reflex Wilson the architect has come into his own: he has constructed a peculiar (theatre) world in which the machine kills itself and in which not even the world s designer can claim to control anything, to hold the reins in his hands. In 1914, Wilson surprises us the most by his still being able to free himself of Wilson. To extricate himself from the straitjacket of his own work. Hospodářské noviny Photo: Lucie Jansch
National Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic (Founded in 1868) The National Theatre is the Czech Republic s representative stage. It is one of the symbols of Czech national identity and a part of the European cultural arena. It is a bearer of national cultural heritage and at the same time an arena for free artistic creativity. The theatre is a living artistic organisation which understands tradition as imposing a task and duty to find constantly new interpretation and an endeavour to achieve the highest artistic quality. The National Theatre Drama ensemble is made up of more than fifty leading Czech actors who are its permanent members. The ensemble is headed by its Artistic Director, the stage director Michal Dočekal, with his four-member team of dramaturges. The National Theatre Drama performs its productions on three stages of the National Theatre: the historical building of the National Theatre (with the capacity of 1,000 spectators), the Estates Theatre (660 spectators), and also the New Stage (400 spectators). The National Theatre is a repertory theatre. The repertoire includes classical pieces of the theatre, modern classics, and also contemporary plays. We stage world and Czech premieres, as well as innovative interpretations of world famous drama. The repertoire includes for example Chekov s Uncle Vanya and The Seagull; Elfriede Jelinek s What Happened When Nora Left Her Husband (toured to Russia, Columbia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.), Beckett s Waiting For Godot (toured to Russia, Rumania, etc.); Havel s Garden Party (toured to Slovakia). NÁRODNÍ DIVADLO THE NATIONAL THEATRE Národní 1, Prague STAVOVSKÉ DIVADLO THE ESTATES THEATRE Ovocný trh, Prague Artistic Director of National Theatre Michal Dočekal tel.: +420 224 901 259 m.docekal@narodni-divadlo.cz Head of Artistic Administration Jana Burianová tel.: +420 224 901 277 j.burianova@narodni-divadlo.cz External Relations and Production Kateřina Ondroušková tel.: +420 224 901 236 k.ondrouskova@narodni-divadlo.cz www.national-theatre.cz www.cinohrand.cz www.wilson1914.com