Elective Affinities / Johann Wolfgang Goethe
A window into the forehead or breast
(...) Right from the beginning, set designer Jan Štěpánek refreshes the small stage of Dejvické divadlo with miniature garden attributes (...) among which even puppets could move. And indeed, brilliant intellectual Goethian dialogues can be heard from the mouths of the actors in a very grotesque stylization, but in spite of this, by the creators’ deliberate, stylish “imperfection”, acting of the four main characters heads towards distinct individuality definition upheld by inventional styled costumes and wigs designed by Jana Preková. Plesl’s Eduard somehow desires to initiate new and new surprises (in his study of nature and people), Krobotová’s Charlotta forms a surprisingly speculative female being, from whose energy and determination radiates ever so more bitterness. Vulnerable Otylie played by Martha Issova seems to evoke a scapegoat from the first moment she appears on the stage, and Neužil’s Ota is characterized by youthfully volatile edginess, which necessarily awakes curiosity of the other “affined”. Although there is enough philosophising about affinities on the stage, their construction is fragile and hardly apprehensible by words. Pitínský manages to describe through craftily built up mise-en-scenes the coexistence of the quartet in markedly attractive stage form...
The parallel between life feelings of today’s young generation and that which passes through one of the greatest novels of classicism is also shown in exactly mystical tirades of the architect who passes through the story, performed in a subtly grotesque way by Martin Myšička. Shallow, fashionable desire for understanding “peculiarities” well characterizes the character of the Baroness, whom Simona Babčáková endowed with lightly cynical curiosity. The second side of the emotional coin of the sapient heroes, i.e. playful infantility, is for example represented by high-spirited enlivening of Bethlehem…
Poetism and bizarre poetics as well as convincing acting makes this Dejvické’s "Goethe" one of the most refreshing productions of the closing year.
Jan Kerbr, Divadelní noviny