The play was written by Josef Holcman directly for the Švanda theater in Prague. The writer and Zlin judge are now debuting as a playwright. The story of a friendship that has come into being in the history of great history will be premiered in the Grand Hall on October 21, 2017. The director is Dodo Gombar, artistic director of Švanda's Theater.
The original play of the playwright Josef Holcman (known as, for example, the author of the Short Story Book) is based on real events in the village of Skoronice in South Moravia. Holcman's own experiences were complemented by data from the local chronicle recorded by his father. In small human drama, the "great" history is mirrored. They begin by occupying the village of Romanians and Germans in 1944 and ending the beginning of a new century.
"Josef Holcman leaves us with a very open look at family chronics to explore our own past from a new angle," says Dodo Gombar, director and co-author of the screenplay. "Breaking Bread tells about human bones, the paradox of being and its absurdity. The game is full of pride. It is and must necessarily be about wine, about soil. And he also tells a lot about friendship and prejudices, "says the production director of the Smíchov scene.
Little human dramas in times of great dictatorships
The main heroes of the story are the peasant Vojta ( Jacob Erftemeijer ), his neighbor and friend Alois ( Petr Buchta ) and Franz Löwy ( Tomáš Červinek ), a military deserter whose Vojta and Alois conceal in the barn at the end of the war and save his life. The effort of all three to maintain a clean shield and pure conscience besides mutual friendship, but it will soon be something. In the following years of dictatorship, fear and mood, the courage and character must be valid - and the price is high ...
Author of the text Josef Holcman says: "The more I leave the past, the more I am attracted to. My father wrote a few folk plays we played in my native village. When he prematurely died, he repeatedly hoped in his mind that his life was actually a great game ... In my view, the theater should or could show the audience that there are solutions, even if sometimes tragic, even in tense conflicts. The theater is like a wine that we produce hard and then we drink lightly, " says the debuting playwright, who also has experience as an actor and director of the Zlín Small Scene.
For Jacob Erftemeijer, an actor with Czech-Dutch roots, the role of the farmer Vojta is the biggest challenge he has ever experienced on the professional stage. "I have never met the challenge of basing the whole life of one character," he says, adding: "Vojta is a bastard. With a sense of justice. Very purposeful and tenacious. I feel a special responsibility because it is a particular person who lived and still lives in the memory of many people. "
The figure of Vojta has a real prediction in the skoronic native, Vojtěch Holcman, the father of Josef Holcman. The peasant, connected with the soil, with its vineyard and the rhythm of rural life, was at the same time artistically gifted and engaged in the benefit of the whole community. Strong civic attitudes led him to a constant conflict with the then power.
Bread, wine, conscience, and a round of history
The Breaking Bread game has inspired the lives of real people, their conflicts with political power, and above all the effort of some to listen to the voice of their conscience. How will the main characters and their neighbors survive until bread breaks? Who will join the winners and who to the losers? And who will be when the turn of history turns again?
According to visiting dramaturgist Iva Mikulová, it also implies an epilogue of games. We can see the stories in the free time after 1989. And for some present, nothing has changed ... "The Breaking Bread game is, among other things, a drama about breaking moments in the lives of ordinary people that shape their next fate. To succumb to continual dives and threats, the heroes do not allow their conscience. And also a natural bond to their birthplace, wine and the whole folk tradition that Josef Holcman always captures in his work, " says Iva Mikulová.
Coats to the New Age
Lucie Labajová created an interesting stage design for the production. The basis of the scene is the dressing room of a local gymnasium, where people prepare for their demanding "public performances" and put off their uppers to change their "suit" or coat to a new age. At the same time, space will be transformed right in front of viewers as time passes. Costumes designed by Lenka Odvárková , the musical accompaniment is the work of Jiří Hájek .
Besides Miroslav Hruška, Martin Krátka, Andrea Buršová, Jan Řezníček, David Punčochář, Marek Pospíchal, Réka Derzsi, Luboš Veselý and Jiří Weiner, we will see Miroslav Hruška, Miroslav Hruška, Jiří Krátký, Jiří Růžič Derzsi,
"Breaking Bread game continues with the introduction of new original Czech games. We are also attracted by the well-known authors of fiction. As a director and as the art director of Švanda's theater, I am therefore very glad that for the first time we also find a playwright in the famous novelist Josef Holcman, " says Dodo Gombar.
Source: tz, edited editorially