End of a Priest

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

‘But I’ve only sinned once. Ere morning till night.’ 

An awkward and somewhat unhappy churchwarden quits his job at a big city church to find a new life in a remote mountain village. By a tragicomic coincidence, he is considered the new parish priest whom the forlorn community desperately searches for and needs. Having tried in vain to explain and escape the part in a ‘miracle’, the churchwarden eventually accepts the role of the accidental saviour. His unorthodox ways and understanding for all human sins and weaknesses capture the hearts of the peculiar villagers. However, he clashes with the local teacher, who used to be the local celebrity and authority and who promotes ‘non-spiritual’ education. The faith of a man who has humbly assumed the desired task thus stands in juxtaposition to the self-confident ‘common sense’. But what if not everything is as it seems?

The original novel by Josef Škvorecký is based on a contemporary piece of news about a purported priest who served in Czech mountains for almost a year without being uncovered. Director Evald Shorm made it into a film, a masterpiece of the Czech New Wave, starring Vlastimil Brodský and Jan Libíček. Nonetheless, the story of the village where the old traditions have been obliterated is not necessarily linked to the 1950s, in which the novel is set, or the late 1960s, when Evald Schorm made his film. The metaphor branching out into several directions is actually a cynical parable set at an indefinite time and place, yet conveying a very definite message. It touches on topics that remain highly relevant to date: the conflicts between urban and rural areas, the aggressive atomization of social bubbles, and the difference between ‘to comprehend and to understand’, and ‘to believe and to have faith’.

Czech premieres: 27 and 28 November 2025 at the National Theatre

CAST AND CREATIVES

Church caretaker - Šimon Krupa
Teacher - Igor Orozovič
Old woman - Johanna Tesařová
Farmer - Jan Bidlas
Farmer's wife - Martina Preissová
Anka - Kateřina Měchurová
Toník - Zdeněk Piškula
Lojza - Ondřej Malý
Majka - Jindřiška Dudziaková / Marie Poulová
Jan Filip - František Červenka
Franta - Štěpán Lustyk
Mourner - Pavlína Štorková
Gossip - Gabriela Mikulková
White bishop - Vladislav Beneš
Black bishop - Valéry Samane Djakoualno
Tuba player - Šimon Janák

Adaptation: Ilona Smejkalová / Jan Mikulášek
Stage direction: Jan Mikulášek
Dramaturgy: Ilona Smejkalová
Set design: Dragan Stojčevski
Costumes: Kateřina Štefková
Music: Jiří Konvalinka
Lighting design: Jan Hugo Hejzlar
Projections: Dominik Lukács Žižka
English surtitles: Alžběta Soperová