It’s busy time at the Cirk La Putyka rehearsal space in Prague’s Holešovice as two teams are taking turns there working to deliver two new performances to their fans by the end of the year. On October 31, a project with the working title Airground will open at La Fabrika. It is directed by Tomáš Rychetský and Ondřej Cihlář.
“Since the beginning, we’ve called Airground the ‚Girl Project’” confides Rosťa Novák. “However besides three hanging, vibrating, dancing and swinging girls, the performance has also David Hlaváč, a keyboard player providing a live solo accompaniment.” According to the performers, Airground is about claiming space, seeking balance, defying gravity and the thoughts of a woman. “I enjoy the overlap of movement theater, dance and circus techniques,” explains Šárka Bočková, a dancer and acrobat known from the Slapstick Sonata, suspended upside down as she speaks.
“To prevent the boys from being sad and playing around with things they shouldn’t be playing with in their free time, we’ve built a Playground for them. We didn’t quite manage to keep it under control, so one girl slipped in there with them” is how smiling Rosťa Novák introduces the second new project. “Playground” directed by Jiří Havelka will premiere at La Fabrika in December 2013. “We want to show a children’s playground as a little world in a big city. It has its residents, rules, heroes and losers. And its secrets.” hints Havelka as to the direction taken in his cooperation with the acrobats of Cirk La Putyka. The audience can look forward to parallel micro-episodes, a stream of movement, games, characters and their confrontations. “We learn everything we later keep repeating our whole lives as children in a playground. Relationships are complicated but at the same time, remarkably simple.” adds Novák. The performance features La Putyka’s core performers Zuzana Havrlantová, Jiří Kohout, Vojtěch Fülep, Jiří Weissmann, Michal Boltnar, Daniel Komarov and Alexandr Volný.
In September, La Fabrika plays Up End Down (Sep. 9), Slapstick Sonata (Sep. 13), Risk (Sep. 15 and 16) and La Putyka (Sep. 29 and 30) at its home stage, and two shows (Risk on Sep. 19 and 20 and La Putyka on Sep. 22) in Bratislava, Slovakia. “We are looking forward to Bratislava. This is the fourth year running we are starting the season there and we are happy that there is still interest in our very first show there” comments Rosťa Novák. “’Long term plans‘ – do you really want to hear those?” asks Novák after a demanding rehearsal. “It’s gonna be pretty intense. We are going to Croatia this Fall and for next year, we are negotiating Spain and Brazil and Slapstick Sonata is going to tour the USA. On top of it, there are Czech festivals including Divadelní svět (Theater World), Colours of Ostrava, Letní Letná and Cirk-Uff in Trutnov. In May, I am supposed to pull of a premiere of another performance entitled “Dolls” with foreign artists. Maksim Komaro, the director of Slapstic Sonata, is working on something, too, but that’s a matter of Fall 2014” concludes Novák.