Press release from 7 Nov 2024 back to the Media page

Divadlo Kámen – inspired by contemporary Czech literature

(press release download in pdf)

My Brother the Messiah performed in the arctic city of Tromsø

When? 14 November 2024 at 19:00

Where? Kulturhuset, Erling Bangsunds plass 1, Tromsø, Norway

PROGRAMME: https://www.divadlokamen.cz/program.php

My Brother the Messiah performed in the arctic city of Tromsø

Prague – On 14 November 2024, Divadlo Kámen will perform its piece “My Brother the Messiah” in the arctic city of Tromsø. Three actors from Divadlo Kámen will act together with their Norwegian colleagues Anne Katrine and Liv Hanne Haugen. The joint performance will take place from 19 h in the Kulturhuset. Czech texts will be complemented by English subtitles.

The piece My Brother the Messiah is inspired by the novel of Martin Vopěnka published in Czech in 2017 and then, in 2021, also in English in Britain and the U.S. Both the novel and the theatre piece take place in 2168 in a Greek farming community of “New Vinohrady”, the refuge for Slavic emigrants after a period of various climatic and social disasters. Several tens of years ago, a messiah had been born in a modest quarter of Prague, and these settlers are his direct followers, apostles of a new spiritual practice.

During the last year, the theatre piece was performed in Prague 14 times. It was created by the team of Divadlo Kámen and a couple of dancers and performers, sisters Live Hanne and Anne Katrine Haugen from Tromsø. The Prague actors provide for the theatre base, their Norwegian colleagues have shot video materials from wintry arctic nature that interweave the performance and delineate – from a different perspective – its dystopian features and its ambiguous aspects of hope.

On 14 November, the actors from Prague and Tromsø are going to meet physically on stage. The Haugen sisters have created intermezzi to be included into various phases of the performance, further enriching the stage action.

“I wonder how this unique – a premiere and closing performance at the same time– works out,” says the director Petr Odo Macháček. “We have worked together with the Haugen sisters in a series of live performances several years ago within the Rainstick projects, and it was a very fruitful collaboration. The form of their stage existence differs widely from ours. On the other hand, there is a sort of deeper aesthetical and thematic understanding between us. Thanks to that, a joint performance is always an exciting venture both for the direct actors and the audience.”

The piece My Brother the Messiah and the joint performance in Tromsø are supported by the grant from the EEA Funds.

More about My Brother the Messiah: https://divadlokamen.cz/mesias_en

Performing Anne Katrine Haugen, Kristýna Suchá, Liv Hanne Haugen, Lucie Zachovalová, Vít Macháček

Additional information: www.divadlokamen.cz

Visuals: https://divadlokamen.cz/vizualy

Images in high resolution: https://divadlokamen.cz/fotografie

Contact: Helena Macháčková, helena.hedvika@divadlokamen.cz , +420 775 718 470