Formed in 1992, Prague-based Dejvicke Theatre Company have developed a high regard, good reputation and large following among their fellow Czechs for producing plays which challenge and engage. Their work covers dramatists from all over Europe, not just The Czech Republic and Slovakia, and they promote new writing as well as give new life to the more traditional. I think it is the first time that this Czech company has come to Manchester (I am not aware of their doing so before) and in the two performances this weekend Manchester's Dancehouse Theatre enjoyed full houses for both. They performed in Czech with surtitles on the prosc. arch, and this weekend they chose to perform two contemporary British plays in tandem.
Saturday 15th - DEALER'S CHOICE by Patrick Marber.
After a long introduction by two members of the company welcoming us to Manchester and a most unfortunate false start which saw the Stage Manager come on to stage to stop the performance because the surtitles were not working and the English speakers in the audience were leaving and complaining, the play was actually stunning!
When the play started (for the second time) there was a beautiful rapport and complicity between actors and audience that is rarely given reign, and I feel certain that my enjoyment of this piece of theatre was greater and deeper entirely due to their false start.
The play was first performed in 1995 and the plot surrounds, as you might expect from the title, a game of poker - or in this case, whichever variation of poker the dealer wishes the assembled to play. These poker games are held in the basement of a grotty London restaurant, and the owner and his staff partake of these games themselves once a week. The owner's son however has other ideas, never having done a day's work in his life he now wants to open up a restaurant of his own - in a converted public lav on the Mile End Road! He is, however, very much in debt (through poker) to some rather nasty people who have sent one of their 'collectors' for the debt.
In this production the humour was nicely placed and drawn out, and the acting was beyond reproach. The six extremely strong cast of David Novotny, Jaroslav Plesl, Hynek Cermak, Martin Mysicka, Vaclav Neuzil and Ivan Trojan were an absolute joy to watch
The set was also lovely. (Martin Chocholousek) In the first act the stage was split in two with the restaurant on the one side and the kitchen on the other [LX was superb here as the straws for the restaurant balanced against the steels of the kitchen perfectly!] The second act saw the 6 of them in their dirty and tiny basement room playing poker.
Directed by Jiri Pokorny this was a thrilling, dark, suspenseful comedy of highly intelligent proportions and utterly spellbinding to watch.
Sunday 16th - A BLOCKAGE IN THE SYSTEM adapted from Irvine Welsh's 'Acid House' by Daniel Majling.
Welsh, of 'Trainspotting' fame, has written various other plays too, and what characterises his oeuvres is his dogged realism, his fascination with the underdog, his realistic portrayals of the seedy and criminal sides of Edinburgh, and above all, his insistence of writing in the local dialect. My concerns here then were, how on earth is a Czech company speaking only in Czech, going to be able to pull this off vocally? As far as I know, since I don't speak Czech, they may well have opted to speak in a very rough Prague dialect throughout - I hope they did. BUT - a note here to the person who wrote the surtitles..Scottish dialect is not equivalent in any way to US language and US slang. Why oh why, did you decide to change the author's own words and write the surtitles in American idiom?! What a calamity! Admittedly, this play is an adaptation by Daniel Majling of a collection of shot stories which are titled 'Acid House', but nevertheless, using American English just completely spoiled the whole experience for me. I was having to rely on the surtitles for my greater understanding of the narrative, and they were continually at odds with my understanding of the setting of the play.
I found the set this time round rather constrictive and claustrophobic, and rather than aiding the action, hindered it. However, the acting once again was first class. In this somewhat esoterical and bizarre play, which sees God sitting on the bench reading Nietzsche whilst covered in excrement from a burst pipe in the toilet system, Gary returns from 5 years in prison unable to have an erection and he sits in wonder as all the men stare at his wife's perfect backside! It's high comedy; ridiculous situations meet trivial and worthy head-on and who is going to win?
This play uses the same cast as the first (with the exception of Novotny), and adds Miroslav Krobot, PetrnVrsek, Martin Pechlat, Jana Holcova, Lenka Krobotova and Klara Meliskova.
For me, this was the less successful of the two plays. Directed by Michal Vajdicka, it felt sometimes that the action was forced. There were also a couple of gestures within this play which were distinctly central European and things which Scottish folk would not do nor necessarily understand. I am being awfully picky perhaps, and undoubtedly if we were to act a play by Ivan Klima we would use gestures which came naturally to us and not perhaps use those of a differing ethnic group.
The acting though was of course faultless, and this company of actors are an absolute joy to watch.
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My final comment is made once again to the person responsible for the surtitles. These were very ad hoc in both plays. There was a lot of dialogue spoken on stage left uncovered by the titling, sometimes the surtitles were shown during the wrong speeches on stage, and sometimes the titles went by so quickly that you were completely unable to read any or make sense of it. I am certain that the majority of the audience neither knew nor cared since they were mainly first language Czech speakers, but for those, like me, who went having to rely absolutely on the English being correct, easily understandable, and complete, it was a huge disappointment.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 16/9/18
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