Concept: Miřenka Čechová
Directors: Miřenka Čechová, Dominika Špalková
Movement direction: Denisa Musilova
Performers: Sabina Bočková, Lukáš Bláha, Viktor Černický, Darja Hlinková, Vojtěch Hříbek, Inga Mikshina, Johana Pocková, Simona Rozložníková, Eva Stará Dramaturgy: Dominika Špalková
Music: Matouš Hekela
Set design: Vendula Bělochová, Eva Chudomelová, Eva Matoušová, Barbora Johanson
Lighting design: David Prokopič
Production:
Venue: Pragovka, Prague (2/10/2018)
Support: Ministry of Culture of the CR; Capital City of Prague; Nadace život umělce; Divadlo DRAK and the International Institute of Figurative Theater; Divadlo Continuo/Plum Yard.
“Madness? Just the ultimate freedom”
!O! is a piece of devised theater that explores reason and unreason as ways of reaching different understandings of reality. In our performance-oriented age, mental illness is often understood as resulting from our efforts to escape ever-present social pressure—whether that be through cloistering ourselves in virtual worlds, hiding from our surroundings, or exiling our problems from our consciousness. A spiritual crisis resulting from misguided attempts at freedom. But can insanity sometimes be its own freedom? This piece looks at the ways in which “madness” might be a parallel world operating under different principles—a space of originality, creativity, and a type of freedom that cannot be grasped by the standards of the modern world.
