'Czech Season in Canada' - a focus on the Archa Theatre
A week ago we brought you a report on the performing arts with 'Czech Season In Canada', an exciting programme of theatre and dance events now underway in the Great White North. Now we bring you an update on the latest in cutting-edge theatre. Radio Prague spoke to Ondrej Hrab, the artistic director of Prague's Archa Theatre, planning several performances at Montreal's centre for intercultural arts.
"The idea is to present the Archa Theatre as a multicultural space which tries to merge different cultures, that we are not the mono-cultural society we were before, under Communism. Our partner in Montreal is the centre called M.A.I., which is a new centre developed by Sylvie Lachance, with whom we worked already on the presentation of Jacob Wren's work in Prague, some years ago. The idea of the theatre is very similar to the idea of Archa - that's why we chose performances that reflect the new visions of the theatre in the Czech Republic.
The first one is called 'Tender Buttons' and it is inspired by the poetry of Gertrude Stein, confronted with the text of the blind, Jewish Ukrainian musician Kateryna Kolcova, who is really a phenomenon, who is really one of the most talented artists we have in Prague at this moment. The performance is a post-modern expression of the life of a person who is living in a different culture, with a disability, but at the same time reflecting the society and the life in a new environment in a very specific way.
The second performance we are bringing is the project with South African artists, it is a collaboration of Czech artists with artists from the townships of Johannesburg. It tries to confront cultures on the basis of dreams - all of the artists were collecting their dreams during the preparation of the show. The whole performance, which is very visual, very, I would say physical more than narrative, is based on the confrontations of dreams of artists living in Prague, and artists living in the very difficult conditions of the townships. This is a project we started five years ago that we are still continuing to develop. We hope, again, that it will be received by Canadian audiences with understanding."
If you're based in North America and would like information on any of the theatre or dance perfomances planned, than visit www.czech-season.cz.
