NdB August: Drama Season Starts Early with August Pre-premieres

The National Theatre of Brno has many performances every month in opera, ballet and drama. Here are some of the highlights. Click here for the complete schedule, ticket information and more details, in English. Photo credit: Tereza Jiroušková / NdB. 

Brno, Aug 14 (BD) – The rest of the summer will have a flurry of activity as the National Theatre of Brno works through a schedule that was compacted by the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.  

Four postponed plays, which were given new premiere dates in September and October, will have pre-premiere dates though the end of August. The plays are performed in Czech without subtitles.  

Tickets are still available. Click here for the complete schedule, ticket information and more details, in English.  

– Liliom: premiere on September 4, 2020 at the Mahen Theater. Pre-premieres on August 19 and 20. 

Ever heard of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel”? It is the Broadway-version of Liliom, a play based in Budapest that was written in 1909 by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. The themes — domestic violence, crime, punishment, purgatory and remembrance — have attracted many of the dramatic greats, like Burgess Meredith, Ingrid Bergman, Elia Kazan (as an actor) and Orson Welles.  

Liliom. Photo credit: Tereza Jiroušková / NdB.

– Velmivelmivelmi temný příběh (A Very Very Very Dark Matter): the Czech premiere on September 11 at the Reduta Theater. Pre-premieres on August 21 and 22. 

Few contemporary playwrights have the power the shock like Martin McDonagh. This play, which premiered in London in 2018, shows the shocking true source for the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens, while commenting upon the great-man theory of history and colonialism’s dark past. According to the Guardian review: “McDonagh is a genuine original with a talent to disturb.” The Brno production is led by the Slovak director Michal Vajdička, who has devoted his directing career to McDonagh’s dramas. 

– Slaměný klobouk (The Italian Straw Hat): premiere on September 25 at the Mahen Theater. Pre-premieres on August 28 and 29 and Sept. 8.  

In the original French the title is: Un chapeau de paille d´Italie. In English it is: The Italian Straw Hat. In any language it is a comedy from the 1851 that turns a groom’s trip to his wedding into a complicated farce when his horse eats the straw hat of an ex-girlfriend, who happened to be with her lover and who demanded a replacement hat lest her husband learn of the dalliance. Italian? English? In any language, it’s clearly French.  

– Idomeneus: Czech premiere on October 2, 2020 at the Reduta Theater. Pre-premieres on August 26 and 27. Just how powerful is a promise? Would you break it if the result turned out to be vile? The Greek tragedy of Idomeneus, who made a promise to save his life only to regret the price, has been told for thousands of years. This version, by the contemporary German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig, brings it to the 21st century. The direction of Štěpán Pácl adds even more imagination to the mix.  

There are two plays that will be performed with English subtitles in the coming months: The King’s Speech on Sept. 16, 2020, at Mahen Theatre and Hana on Oct. 10, 2020, at Mahen Theatre.  

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