In terms of genre, it fluctuates between a philosophical treatise on the relativity of beauty and cheap film horror. Actor David Prachar as an Animal is something between Frankenstein and Edward the Shearer, he moves on his jumping boots, he waves his hands with giant claws and grunts in a sounded voice.
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He is accompanied by a pack of black creatures, which, however, serve mostly to save the actor from a dangerous fall, otherwise they are just a formless illustration of evil. Scenes with the Beast take place (except for the only moment when the actor ventures to the pre-stage) in the depths of the stage in front of blood and claws stained by a white wall with cold fluorescent lights. This makes the Animal a literally and metaphorically distant problem for viewers, reduced to amplified roars.
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The front part of the stage is occupied by the arena of the circus, in which the directors set Beauty and her family against Hrubín’s text. Acrobats, clowns, musicians, tap dancers and Siamese twins, representing Krásina’s sisters, perform there, performed by Magdalena Borová and Pavlína Štorková, the most entertaining element of an otherwise inorganic sticker, which did not enrich the whole story or characters.
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The position of Beauty in this circus, reminiscent of comedians from The Bartered Bride (including an unfinished barbell with a dumbbell), is unclear and Anna Fialová has no choice but to lead her in the traditional position of a devoted daughter and an innocent girl, for God’s sake, in love with a monotonous and annoying grunting monster. At the same time, Fialová and Prachař would certainly be able to play Hrubín’s story of love, which will snatch the human soul from the animal body, with appropriate poetry and acting persuasiveness. Unfortunately, they were not given the space to do so.
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Instead, the fairy tale crumbles into a boring, unruly circus frolic and a stereotypically produced horror. And the fact that the head of the National Theater Drama casts the leading actor of the ensemble, at Monday’s premiere Jana Preissová and František Němec, even in alternation, in the few divisions and unnecessarily ascribed characters, proves that his departure from the National Theater is justified.
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Unfortunately, the times when Daniel Špinar managed to bring the Manon, which is artistically and poetically interesting for young audiences, to the stage of the National Theater, even at the cost of significantly trimming Nezval’s text, are probably irretrievably gone.
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František Hrubín: Beauty and the Beast |
| Arranged and directed by Daniel Špinar, dramaturgy by Ilona Smejkalová, stage by Lucia Škandíková, costumes by Linda Boráros, music by Matěj Kroupa. Premiere on January 10 at the National Theater, Prague |
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