Theatre
I I The Czech Republic’s TA FANTASTIKA has performed its theatre of illusion all over the world. We flew to Prague for an early taste of the
magic. Words: Mark Fisher
’m in Prague and it’s bucketing down. But even through the warm
rain of a summer thunder storm, the Czech capital still looks like
it’s dropped out of a fairy tale. If they’d built it as a film set. you’d say it was too beautiful to be true. And the fairy tales are continuing down a cobbled lane a stone’s throw away from the city’s Charles Bridge where we find the home of Ta Fantastika. ‘I’m a bad director.’ laughs Pavel Marek. banging on the big wooden doors for attention. ‘I haven’t a key for my own theatre.’
But someone lets us in to his intimate SOO-seat playhouse where. for the last thirteen years. his company has created musicals and — Marek’s speciality — black light theatre: wordless fantasies that make you believe a man can fly. They choose well-known fables with strong themes such as The Magic Flute. Don Quixote. Gulliver and Alice in Wonderland and use them as a jumping off point for visual spectaculars that have toured to over 30 countries.
Listed in the children’s programme of the Fringe is Aspects of Alice in which Lewis Carroll’s young heroine finds herself gliding above the picturesque buildings of old Prague, encountering mysterious creatures as she performs a kind of three-dimensional dance to the accompaniment of magical effects. Also on show in Edinburgh is Gulliver, which cleverly splices live actors and film to create Swift’s Lilluputian worlds: it’s included in the adult theatre programme. but would be of interest to any child not alarmed by one scene of nudity.
Underlying the performances is a technique based on the idea
that audiences cannot distinguish
iWhen you black from black. Using patented
mechanical devices and a stage crew
leave our used to working in the dark, the Shows, you productions let actors defy gravity and - brin inanimate ob'ects to life. justhave g J
These days. Ta Fantastika is a 1 populist theatre pitched at tourists. but
' the roots of the com anv’s work are in quesflons P«
the communist era where free to 35k, expression was not tolerated. ‘I was trying to find a theatre that would let me say what I felt about this country,’ says Marek. ‘We weren’t able to speak out loud like everybody can now. We survived through that time. but I still have that feeling inside me: freedom. But right now I don’t think I’m making political plays.’ Rather than a political dissident. Marek is a self-made man. reacting to the tyranny of communism by embracing what strikes us as a right-wing ideology of freedom. He’s proud that his company has always operated without subsidy and is determined to do things his own way: ‘I don’t like people to look after me.’ he says. His own way is certainly demanding. To achieve such slick and seamless visual effects requires a painstaking combination of technology. film. live acting and behind-the-scenes graft. ‘We have a two-pronged theatre: one is what you see from the front. the other is happening at the back.’ he says. ‘It takes 25 performances before Wm. INC (when and black everything settles down. Everything is done in the dark. there are “gm effects con“. toggthe, loads of set changes and the flying scenes are quite dangerous.’ to make Gulliver (above) As if to prove the point. Marek’s son. an actor and company 3"“ Aspt‘cts 0‘ AW“ manager. emerges from the wings nursing his head after a backstage bash. For Marek it’s a price worth paying. Theatre. for him. is symbolic of the freedom he so dearly cherishes. ‘The theatre is contra to PCs and PlayStations.’ he says. A new generation is able to sit down and play alone. but the theatre is able to bring people together. Games tell you everything. whereas if you walk out from one of our shows. you just have 10,000 questions to ask.’
Aspects of Allce, Pleasance, 556 6550, untll 26 Aug, 11.30am, £8-£9 (£74.28); Gulliver, Pleasance, 556 6550, until 26 Aug, 5.30pm, £8.50—£9.50 (£7.50-£8.50)
lF YOU LIKE THIS. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
I Lama. Dubbed “theatre of light'. this visual show from the US combines music, theatre and the latest light technologies. We inspired by the lava flow of a volcano in Hawaii. George Square Theatre, 662 8740, 2--11Aug, 6.45pm; 14--25 Aug, 9.30pm, £11 (£10).
52 THE LIST FISTIVAL GUIDE ‘2—8 Aug 2002