2000 – Sávitrí (Divadlo Líšeň)
Theatre Líšeň
Shadow-play is a type of theatre not often seen in our regions and therefore it attracts attention and is appealing. However, the Líšeň Theatre in its oriental show Sávitrí was not satisfied with an uninspired imitation, but delved into an actual investigation of the possibilities of this type of theatre. An actor in a white mask softly tells the story to the accompaniment of the sounds of a large set of musical instruments, while behind a white screen various illusionary magic tricks take place. surprising the audience with a variety of clever details. The story is very simple, but the suggestive staging sufficently balances it all.
“…..I perceive the puppet as something magic. Something that can do things a human can never manage. I do not particularly like the combination of live actor and puppets – even if this is possible. But if it is being used, it has to be fully justified for it to function and the performance itself has to deal with this relationship. A puppet is something special, it is a sort of mystery to me. The spectator of the puppet theatre must, in my opinion, use far more imagination than in the drama theatre. I cannot explain this exactly, but I perceive the puppet as a magic object…” (said the head of the Líšeň Praha Company, Pavla Dombrovská at Bábkárska Bystrice, not knowing that a month later her company will receive the Erik Prize in Prague for the magical performance of a fairy tale about the princess Sávitrí.)
Martin J. Švejda, Loutkář 2000 (5/214)
The Líšeň Theatre came into being in a little Líšeň house, inhabited by its two founding members Pavla Dombrovská and Luděk Vemola who started to work creatively within its confines, in the yard as well as in the immediate vicinity (in the woods and on the meadows). The junk from the cellar becomes the source of props and the former hen-house turns into the theatre workshop. The company began to grow (mostly by other tenants of the house). Now the Lisen Theatre associates seven members dealing with unusual forms of the theatre – combining motion, sound and artistic experiments.
