1992 Professional sphere – Marek BEČKA and Buchty a loutky (Yeast cakes and puppets)
They have completed 22 opening performances (the first was the Emperor’s New Dress”, and so far the last is Gilgamesh). Ten years ago, hardly out of school, without any experience, they decided to start a professional puppet theatre in Cheb.
(The director of the Cheb Theatre at the time (1991) wanted to open something like a puppet studio and therefore turned to the newly appointed head of the puppet department of the Academy, Josef Krofta, who recommended Marek Bečka, then a recent graduate of puppetry, who then turned to a few fellow students and that was it).
In 1992 they appeared at Skupa’s Plzeň where they surprised with their provocative production of the Mysterious Stranger, clearly demonstrating that the puppetry family will have to count them in. When in 1994 they returned to Prague and found asylum in the Mlejn Club, few believed that the group would not fall apart.
The truth is that the first years in Prague were marked by a search, not only for a repertory.Then in 1996 they played “for pleasure only” at the Skupa theatre their Story ? of Man. As always, it looked like a mere series of practical jokes but it was this production which later became famous at home and abroad.
Their subsequent productions were already clearly divided into those for adults (particularly Urbild, Concert of Josef K.) and those for the youngest ones (at Mateřinka 99 they received awards for the Three Little Pigs, and among the latest ones, Frog Valentyn and Monkey Genevieve). The latest production Gilgameš, although seeming to be something different of a more serious nature, it does not renounce its playful poetry, subtle humour, unexpected metaphors and a”cabinet style of work with the puppet” – ingredients which imprinted an uninterchangeable style. This is already obvious in their name “Buchty a loutky” (yeast cakes and puppets).There is a slight allusion to the Schumann theatre, while selecting the Czech environment and finally also the means of expression – puppets.
The ensemble consists of more or less six to seven persons.
They try to make the theatre independent but the results of their work is comparable to that of statutory theatres.
The theatre Buchty a loutky travels across Bohemia, Moravia, near (Slovakia) and far lands (Hong Kong) and if it does not die it will continue to do so…
Loutkář 4/2001