Resurrection / Daniel Majling
An adaptation of short stories by an unknown author
The Resurrection doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking, yet it is a top production, indeed the best one since The Seagull (also directed by Vajdička). A virtuoso production full of paradoxes in which everything turns into its opposite many times, with ostentatiously bizarre storylines, precise but unobtrusive direction and flawless acting. While an exceptionally entertaining uncovering of the roles takes place in the beginning, more serious topics are gently touched after the interval. Being about Love and the existence of God, it actually gets quite serious towards the end, but not disturbingly at all. A lot of references to Chekhov and Woody Allen who are in a way godfathers to the play come as an extra. Overall, a safe bet you say. Of course, but, hands down, you are hardly going to stumble upon another theatre production as masterfully written and played as this one among Czech theatres. There is a danger in the virtuosity of becoming an end in itself, but still: it is a joy to watch someone who know their arts.
Vladimír Mikulka, nadivadlo.blogspot.cz
„Doubt’s“ Resurrection is set in some kind of distinguished American publishing house. Pavol Andraško designed the scene using several shelves full of books, a couple of armchairs, typewriters and a portrait of a famous writer Maxwell, a Hemingway of his time. And precisely this Maxwell, „the breadwinner“ of this publishing house, has lost his faith in stories and has given up writing. What now? There is no other way but to convince the editor Fletcher, whom Maxwell loves without being loved back, to let him write a new novel on her naked body. And so he writes and writes. Then there’s the receptionist Carhartt who has loved one woman all his life, a woman he has only seen once at a country music ball, while he himself is loved by a neighbour who cooks and does the washing for him for free. And finally the unsuccessful writer and alcoholic Schindler and his wise psychiatrist Blind who turns out to be madder than his patient in the end… They are all funny in a sad way.
Jan Kolář, Divadelní noviny