OHLASY/REFERENCES
Divácký ohlas na Starého nácka po premiéře:
Vážený pane Učíku,
nejsem sice kritik, abych to dokázal erudovaně zhodnotit, přesto musím říct, že mě Starý nácek zasáhl nejen uměleckým provedením jako divadelníka ale i celkově jako “mladého” diváka a hlavně člověka.
Především v té inscenaci je sdělení, což považuji v současné době za “nedostatkové zboží”, neboť v současnosti převažují ambice a tendence spíše formalistické.
Dokázali jste přes jakoby “formu dokumentárního” divadla s historickým námětem docílit přesahu k hlubšímu vyznění nadčasových témat i dnešnímu člověku blízkých (svědomí), což samo o sobě je nelehký úkol. Ale navíc jste zvládli udržet neustálé napětí, využívali humoru v mnoha fasetách, a přistupovali k věci jak s hravým nadhledem, tak i s velkou naléhavostí a citem.
Rád bych vypíchl hravost, skoro až dětskou (hra s loutky, hra se stíny, babka, dědek a slanečci), nápaditost (Hitlerovo infantilně-psychopatické hrátky s natahovací hračkou tanku nebo vysokánský troll-žid vedoucí za ruku maličkého Hitlera jako dítě, který obdivuje jeho chůdy s tím, že jestli to taky vymysleli židi)…. O překvapení nebyla nouze. Mohl bych dále pokračovat… ale co je hlavní, nic tam nebylo jakoby na míň nebo navíc nebo jen tak pro efekt. Minimálními prostředky k maximálnímu účinku …vše zapadalo do jednoho celku v groteskně temné a snové atmosféře.
Bylo cítit, že se herci staví ke svým rolím s pokorou a přes velkou dávku nadhledu a sebeironie ztvárňují postavy citlivě a uvěřitelně. Čpěla z toho zajímavý vztah herec-postava, hercova snaha pochopit, paušálně neodsuzovat na první pohled odsouzeníhodné… což zásadně přispělo k oné síle sdělení, o které jsem zmínil výše.
Já vím, tolik čiré chvály najednou. Těžko té “dokonalosti” uvěřit, ale také lehké jí podlehnout. Ještě jednou opakuji, nehodnotím to jako kritik, ale jako divadelník, divák a člověk, kterého strhlo představení svou poetikou mému gustu blízkou. Abych to mohl kritičtěji zhodnotit, musel bych to vidět ještě jednou a možná s větším odstupem, seděl jsem na premiéře totiž v první řadě. Ale od toho jsou přece kritici. Mimochodem můj kamarád, co tam byl se mnou, je jedním (Divadelní noviny) a i jeho, alespoň co jsme se bavili, to velice nadchlo.
Tato inscenace si rozhodně zaslouží velkou pozornost a přeji Vám, aby to vidělo co nejvíce lidí. Já rozhodně na Starého nácka chci jít znovu.
S přátelským pozdravem
Jan Kovář
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Jana Machalická: Inconspicuous Charm of the First Work
Lidové noviny - Theatre Tuesday - Hitler and the Troll in Prague
The audience will be unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised at the production of a play by Martin Komárek, The Old Nazi, staged by Martin Učík at the experimental space of Roxy/NoD in Prague.
Why unexpected? In this country, few culture projects do without prior promotion or self-praise, especially if it is an original Czech play. “Literate” authors willing to write for the theatre are being spoiled and sometimes just the fact that they have written a play is enough for them to be praised.
However, Martin Komárek, a new playwright, otherwise an experienced journalist and author, is a different story. The opening of his Old Nazi was not preceded by a media campaign, and so the audience suddenly discovered an intelligently written text that gives room to director’s imagination. A theatre essay evoking metaphors, an ambiguous play that analyses and studies the main character, Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, from various angles. His monologues, night fears and excruciating thoughts are skilfully being mixed with dreamy passages - hallucinations, in which the unhappy man who has discovered his intention a long time ago, sees fairy-tale creatures as well as one of the biggest mass murderers of humanity. Hamsun’s days are then defined by the contact with his wife Marie.
Komárek depicts the sleazy connection of Knut and Marie not only with great empathy, but also with a sense of theatre interpretation. Besides, he does not offer any implicit instructions for judging an author who, lead by his erroneous ideas, inclined to Nazism, he “just” dramatically and also poetically works with the fact and leaves the judgment to the audience, which is always pleasant. The play keeps its ambivalent approach rigorously, thanks to which it approaches Hamsun without resorting to old clichés.
The author brings Hamsun on the stage as a run-down old fellow that stinks of urine and lives more in his own dreams than in reality. He depends on his wife Marie, also a disgusting old woman. She takes care of him but hates him. She remains in the marriage although she’s been in love with someone else for fifty years. The relationship of Marie and Knut is seen as a sleazy connection even from the director’s point of view, the life of both seems to be reduced to physical issues, especially defecation. This vulgarization of an existential topic that borders on absurdity is Beckett-like in many aspects, and thanks to the main actors David Matásek (Knut Hamsun) and Hana Seidlová (Marie) reaches the scale of an ingenious grotesque clownery. In a way, it is a struggle for power that changes into their wrestling for a herring or a place in bed. The duel is the centre of the play and both actors perform it with bravura. But it is not just this: Matásek’s Hamsun finally clarifies the reason for his incomprehensible admiration for Nazism. It wouldn’t harm to stress these passages more, but they cannot be missed, just like Seidlová’s Marie’s comical adulation of the leader.
Martin Učík has also very well used a simple stage arrangement that consists of a wooden board in the middle of the acting space and a few movable dividers with elastic fabric stretched out in their frames. Pushed against it, faces stand out plastically like hideously grimacing masks, on other occasions the transparent material of the dividers reflects the shadows of the characters that visit Hamsun. Učík mixes the tools in a risky way, for example he even added puffery puppet sketches, but still, everything fits together style-wise. Knut’s and Marie’s counterparts are the regularly appearing characters of Hitler and the Troll. Ondřej Bauer presents the dictator as a childishly looking, and thanks to that even more dangerous, scumbag. Some characterization details feel half-plastic, for example when he lies on the floor and plays with a toy tank, or when he gives Hamsun a bloody kiss and Hamsun remains with a red mark on his mouth, however, others are convincing. There are tears literally bursting out of Hitler in the moment of pathetic self-emotion, and there is also a great scene with Maria who appears to him with golden hair and disgustingly hairy armpits, raising herself towards her leader. Hitler creates a picturesque twosome with the tall and phantasmal Troll played by Petr Vaněk that accosts Hamsun and represents his night scares and approaching death.
Of course, objections could be raised concerning the two journalists played by members of the Bohnická Company, whose amateurish performance contrasts with the performance of professionals, but it is not such a huge problem. Unlike the frame that opens and ends the play; journalists’ discussion about what obituary about the “old Nazi” they should write. This journalistic frame in a way reduces the pictorial potential of the play.
Martin Učík, who seems to be the main initiator of the project and the one who asked Martin Komárek to write the play, has, in a simple environment but with excellent actors, created an extraordinary production of an original play. In it, he opened the issue of personal failure that has a timeless dimension, and a few easily overlooked clumsy details cannot change anything about it.
Martin Komárek - Old Nazi - The Tragedy of a Genius
Concept and direction: Martin Učík
Stage: Petr Bakoš
Costumes: Pavla Michálková
Experimental space of Roxy/NoD, Bohnická Company, premiere on March 3rd, review based on the repeated performance from April 16th
The relationship of Marie and Knut is a sleazy connection, the lives of both seem to be reduced to defecation issues. This vulgarization of an existential topic is Beckett-like.