Daniela Fischerová: Road to the Pole. A story about the search for the meaning of life at its very end

Writer, playwright, screenwriter, publicist and teacher Daniela Fischerová, one of the leading radio authors, is celebrating her 75th birthday. Listen to her bittersweet comedy with Jiřina Jirásková and Josef Somre in the lead roles. They found themselves at the zenith of active life and have a common place – a home for the elderly. Desires, dreams, unfulfilled wishes, disappointments, trifles and important events are freely intermingled and composed into a bleak, yet not hopeless human story.

Mrs. Mája, a former actress, is the star of the retirement home. Although she herself no longer wants anything from life and has resigned herself to everything except cherries in chocolate, wine and chatter, she charms those around her with her vocal exercises and somewhat cynical jokes. Among her biggest admirers is Mr. Evžen, once a striker and then a workaholic. Unlived life overwhelms him like an avalanche.

Events are set in motion when a new sports officer, Rút, a former representative in cycling, joins the home. He invents a new activity for the elderly staff – he buys exercise bikes and invites the elderly to a somewhat sterile bicycle race, the virtual destination of which is the North Pole. In Mr. Evžen, he gets an enthusiastic competitor, in Mrs. Mája, a staunch opponent.

Czech Radio Dvojka broadcasts a rerun of the production on the occasion of the author’s 75th birthday. “The radio play is the most beautiful and at the same time the most difficult genre I have ever tried,” admits Daniela Fischerová today. “Only someone who has done it themselves knows how difficult it is to tell a story through voices alone. In the theater, actors are helped by costumes, props, scenography, light, facial expressions, gestures, movement on stage… A radio actor only has a narrow voice slot, and it must create a character, a situation and a story. I was lucky to have excellent actors, for all of whom I remember Eduard Cupák (The Denied Albert or The Story of Grief and Lies) and Jiřina Jirásková (Cesta k pól), and I was lucky to have the great director Hana Kofránková. Even years later, I thank the radio for giving me this opportunity.”