Bílá Voda

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Bílá Voda – a mountain village where crowds of believers used to flock to beg help from a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary. Today, Lena Lagner, a frustrated and unhappy woman, comes here to escape her past. She is taken in by several peculiar nuns, headed by nun Evarista. Lena studies the dusty records of the monastery and soon realises that the demons shadowing the history of the local nuns are far from gone and burden her own fate as well. The most difficult battle must be fought at home field... The latest novel by Kateřina Tučková, whose book The Last Goddess ranks among the most successful contemporary Czech books, narrates the history of women’s religious orders under the communist regime, which is an often-overlooked chapter of the Czech history, and the place of women in the Catholic Church.

Czechs are considered the most atheistic nation in the world; in fact, only about one-third of our country's population professes any religion. One percent of Czechs are even “conscious atheists who reject the existence of a God they know something about”. The truth is that we tend to believe in various ideologies to make for the lacking belief in God. Even today, many people would not hesitate to put a sharp end to the institution that was responsible for the Inquisition, the Crusades and the Wars of Religion. Nonetheless, are those who fight against Evarista fanatics who have been given the chance to release their inherent sadism, or are their acts driven by true belief in making the world a better, safer, freer and happier place?

Slovak playwright Daniel Majling says that every ideology simply speaks the language it has created – and he wants to conceive his theatrical adaptation in this sense.

CAST AND CREATIVES

Evarista, a nun - Jana Pidrmanová / Tereza Jarčevská
Tobie, a nun - Veronika Lazorčáková
Bohdanka, a nun - Berenika Anna Mikeschová
Benigna, Mother Superior - Johanna Tesařová
Saulová, a prison guard; later Paulita, a nun - Kateřina Winterová
Žofia Burdová, an official - Magdaléna Borová
Alois Stauber, priest in Bílá Voda - Vladimír Javorský
Daniel Felix, bishop of the underground Catholic Church - František Němec
Leopold Plojhar, priest and minister of health - Saša Rašilov / Martin Siničák
Rudolf Havraj, dean, vicar general and bishop - Martin Dejdar
Milan Maličký, district church secretary - Pavel Neškudla
Otokar Hrůza, chairman of SÚC MK ČSSR - Ondřej Malý
Richard Lagner, member of the People's Militia - Šimon Krupa
Jan Jezbera, a patient; later a clergyman - Jakub Burýšek / Hubert Ludwig
Goliášová, a prisoner - Klára Vostárková

Dramatisation: Daniel Majling
Stage direction: Michal Vajdička
Translation and dramaturgy: Ilona Smejkalová
Set design: Pavol Andraško
Costumes: Katarína Hollá
Music: Michal Novinski
Movement direction: Laco Cmorej
English surtitles: Alžběta Soperová