The Brno Metro

ABOUT

In Brno, the metro goes only to the beyond  

In an unnamed house of ill fame in Brno, a Janáček’s opera conductor passes away in flagrante delicto, so to speak. Given this substantial circumstance of his decease, there is no wonder that he had no time to settle his earthly affairs. In order to do so duly, he embarks on a journey through the netherworld, or rather through the underworld. To be more specific: he takes the Brno underground. The metro comes to pick up Petr Bohatý, the main protagonist of the slapstick written by the dramatist and stage director Tomáš Svoboda specifically for the NTB Drama Company. What makes this comedy crazy is not just the lack of genre appellations: for some crazy reason, Spejbl serves you a guide in the metro, allowing you to meet many important personalities, whether departed (such as the Kundera cousins) or alive. It is probably the first theatrical play in which the famous stage director Daniela Špinar appears as a fictional character. Tomáš Svoboda (*1971) is a Czech theatre and film director and scriptwriter. He won renown thanks to his fanciful themes, such as those featuring in his film The Indian starring Karel Roden, to name but one. He also put his authorial stamp on the production of classical plays (e.g. Fire, My Lady! and Goldoni alla Ostrava). For his ‘Brno performance’ Svoboda has chosen to radically update the medieval morality play Everyman. Despite the common ground and the inspiration he draws from it, his remake is so thorough that it has no longer anything in common with medieval times! And what about the moral dimension of the play in which the underworld Spejbl gets an alien drunk just by snapping his fingers?  We let our kind spectators to see that for themselves…

World premiere: December 6th, 2024 at Reduta Theatre

Production team

Author: Tomáš Svoboda

Directed by: Tomáš Svoboda

Cast

Petr Bohatý, dirigent: Roman Blumaier

Andrea Bohatá, operní pěvkyně: Hana Briešťanská

Pavla Janouškovcová, prostitutka: Kateřina Liďáková

Anděla, Matka (Bohatá): Jana Štvrtecká

Josef S.: Jan Grygar

Hyperaktivní chlapec, jeho syn: Martin Veselý

Daniela Špinar, nejvýznamnější režisérka z Prahy: Anna Polívková j. h.

Milan Kundera, Hornista: Jakub Svojanovský

Ludvík Kundera, Otec (Bohatý): Vladimír Krátký

Leoš Janáček, Dirigent: David Kaloč

Agilní inspicient: Oldřich Bělka