..West Bohemian Theatre, Cheb /
..Západočeské divadlo v Chebu, Czech Republic

The Západočeské divadlo v Chebu (West Bohemian Theatre, Cheb) is the only professional theatre in the Karlovy Vary (Karslbad) region. As such, it plays an important role in the cultural life not only of the city of Cheb, but the whole autonomous region. It covers all social groups of spectators, from children to seniors. It is mainly financed by the municipality of Cheb, smaller part is given by the Karlovy Vary region and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The theatre employs 17 actors nowadays.  

Since January 2006, the new creative team (stage director Zdeněk Bartoš, dramaturgist Marta Ljubková) focuses on new dramatic texts, both Czech and the best foreign plays, or a modern interpretation of classical texts, regarding not only the interest of a large public, but also that of the demanding and sensible audience (Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls is the first opening of the season 2007 / 2008). The theatre disposes of two halls: the big one (240 seats) in the main building and the studio (60 seats) which allows more experimental or minority forms.

The theatre exports its performances to various Czech towns (Prague, Mariánské Lázně / Marienbad, Karlovy Vary / Karlsbad, Klatovy, Příbram, Kladno), or abroad (participation in international monodrama festivals). The theatre organizes the only international monodrama festival in the Czech Republic (biennale in September).

The theatre realizes about 20 – 22 performances per month,  including 3-4 morning shows for children or scholars. In June and July, the theatre realizes open-air shows in various castles of the region (Cheb Castle, Loket Castle). In 2006 it was Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in 2007 Romeo and Juliet, in 2008 Legend of Chalk Circle.

Since September 2005 the theatre has produced 25 creations of all genres and types:
 
Gabriela Preissová / Jenufa – October 2005
Mérimée, Bizet, Trnka / Carmen – December 2005
Ray Cooney / Funny Money – December 2005
Collodi, Šimčíková / Pinocchio – January 2006
Paul Barz / Viva Verdi – February 2006
-------------------------- coming of the new creative team
Martin McDonagh / The Cripple of Inishmaan – March 2006
Josef Topol / A Cat on Railways – April 2006
William Shakespeare / The Merchant of Venice – May 2006

Season 2006 / 2007

Karel Hynek Mácha / May  – September 2007
Christopher Durang / Beyond Therapy – November 2007
Jan Jirků / The Princess from the Underworld – November 2007
Smetana, Sabina, Trnka / The Bartered Bride – December 2006
William Mastrosimone / Like Totally Weird – February 2007
Claude Confortes / Marathon – March 2007
Elmer Rice / Dream Girl – April 2007
Pavel Kohout / Cyanide at five – May 2007
William Shakespeare / Romeo and Juliet – June 2007

Season 2007 / 2008

Dubnička, Beneš / Feet towards the explosion or The Last Atom Hero – September 2007
Caryl Churchill / Top Girls – October 2007
Martin McDonagh / The Lonesome West – November 2007
Jan Jirků / Once upon a time in Cheb – December 2007
Václav Havel / Conspirators – February 2008
Jeffrey Hatcher / Compleat Female Stage Beauty – April 2008
Owen McCafferty / Shoot the Crow – April 2008
Ljubková, Bartoš / Legend of Chalk Circle – June 2008

..QUARTET FESTIVAL - 4th edition - Ancenis (France) - 10 - 14.3.2010.

..Leo Egerstein - The Flaming Heart /.Nawratilowa Szymczykowa

A comedy? Sentimental soap-opera? Bitter-sweet road-movie about two ladies between 50 and 70 who love tattooing their bodies?
Briefly, a story of two friends, Ewa and Jarmila, born Silesians (Silesia means a region with a mixture of three nationalities: German, Czech and Polack; this is why their names are written in the Polack manner, but they are half Czech, half German – very typical for Central Europe). One became a sailor and travelled through the whole world, the other became a business woman, unhappy in her marriage.
We follow their lives not quite chronologically: we learn about their childhood in Cheb during the World War II, about their expulsion together with other compatriots (new Czech governor considered them and their families as German...), about their meeting in Hamburg in the 80s and their passion for tattoo. During twenty years, they cover their bodies totally by this extravagant way of permanent body painting...
In the same time, we see the story of two “side” characters: the daughter of Ewa Nawratilowa, Sabine, who cannot understand why her mother left the family, completely changed her way of life and opened a tattoo shop in Hamburg, and her 90 years old nanny Gertrude, who brought her up in Cheb and lived with her until her escape for Hamburg. We learn about her old secret: just after the end of the war she was violated by four Czech soldiers, members of a so-called “revolutionary guard”.
The story begins and ends in Cheb, a town on the Western border of Bohemia, where all four women meet to see the house where they lived and to drink a beer together. The final scene is a kind of dreamy conciliation with the past.
The play opens many sensitive themes: friendship, relationships within a family or expulsion of different nationalities from Czechoslovakia after the last war. In the same time the text is not “deeply existential”, but very light, optimistic, sometimes crazy (both ladies tattoo themselves!). Its motto could be: It’s never late to start a new life!

Inspired by a documentary Das flammend Herz.
Leo Egerstein is a pseudonym of an original Czech playwright René Levínský, a nuclear physicist by profession.

..QUARTET FESTIVAL - 3rd edition - Eger (Hungary) - 27 - 31.10.2009.

..Marta Ljubkova - Zdenek Bartos : The legend of the chalk circle

The legend of two women disputing a child is well known thanks to Bible (the story of the king Solomon’s judgment) and a Chinese theatre play from 13th century. In 20th century it was adapted several times – by the German poet Klabund or Bertolt Brecht who is the author of one of the most famous versions.
Inspired by these sources, the dramaturge and director of this play completely rewritten the story and located it to ancient Armenia, a small country permanently endangered by bigger and stronger neighbours. Well known is the Turkish genocide of Armenians hundred years ago... During one of the attacks combined with a palace putsch, a small child, heir of governor’s office, abandoned by his egoistic and emotionally frigid mother, is rescued by a servant who undergoes many adventures and risks to save his life and to give him a happy childhood. Few years after, when old orders are re-established, the biological mother who voluntarily left her baby to his own fate wants him back, because he is the heir and thus a key to rich estates. Who is the real mother? The ancient habit of chalk circle must decide.
Creators wanted to show the archetypal story in modern light and ask the question of motherhood nowadays. Is it a woman who wants the child for her own profit or the one who loves him?
The parallel story shows the life of poacher (illegal hunter) Ruben who becomes by coincidence a wise judge – he is the one to arbitrate the case of two mothers. The play in general shows many small characters in extreme situations. Some of them are surprisingly brave, others turn out to be cowards, some of them can help his fellows, and others would let them die... Just like in the real life.
The music composed by Matěj Kroupa is inspired by real Armenian folk songs.

..QUARTET FESTIVAL - 2nd edition - Cheb (Czech Republic) - 24 - 28.3.2009.

..Marta Ljubková, Jan Jirků - Once Upon a Time in the West in Cheb /
..Tenkrát v Chebu na západě

Crazy cabaret in the western movie style or a theatre cartoon – thus can be described an original play written directly for the Cheb theatre, full of absurdities and burlesque moments, inspired by the famous western Once Upon a Time in the West.
A young teacher arrives to one of the most west cities in Bohemia, because he inherited a house from his dead grand-mother and got a job in an elementary school. Soon he finds out that the town is a real “wild west”. He is attacked at the railway station, rescued by a commando of his colleagues - teachers and the director of the school who looks like a typical trapper with a gun. He walks through the dangerous and mysterious city, meets a young blond girl with whom he fells in love, the mayor of the town and other strange people – and the ghost of his dead granny! He is told his grand-mother was murdered, because she had a wonderful plan how to raise the small town to an enormous fame and prosperity. She initiated the construction of the subway that would connect the isolated town with the capital. The terminus is in the cellar of her house. But the conspiracy at the town hall wants to destroy the plan and keep murders in secret...

The hyperbolized show with many songs can be perceived as a local satire or a specific comedy about noble intentions and intriguing villains, just like in a real western. All the songs are played and presented by actors themselves. The creation of the play was also unusual: there are many quotations of real citizens of Cheb who were asked to write down their opinions about the town they live in and some parts were created by the method of improvisation – the screenplay has not been fixed until the opening.

..QUARTET FESTIVAL - 1st edition - Novi Sad (Serbia) - 30.10. - 3.11.2008.

..Václav Havel - CONSPIRATORS / Spiklenci - A play in fifteen scenes

This is the first play Havel wrote after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet army (three years afterwards – in 1971). It is "a political allegory about government, power and human nature in 15 scenes" (Carol Rocamora).
In an unnamed country, once governed as a colony, the cruel dictator Olah is in exile after recently being unseated by a courageous and honourable revolutionary movement. A democratic government is now led by a benign and compassionate Prime Minister. Meanwhile, however, several kingpins of the regime - in the army, judicial system, security and censorship - have begun to worry about the stability of the new democracy. Rumours spread that Olah is still alive. Someone has the idea to found a Revolutionary Council for the protection of democracy. According to other rumours in the country a conspiracy really has arisen with the aim of overpowering the authorities. To confront it, in spite of its original intentions, the Council becomes a secret organisation. Its activities begin to develop in an unlawful direction and the alliance starts to crumble – its members argue about who will become the leader and everybody is making plots against the others. In the end the Council is suspected by the public of being in sympathy with Olah - and so the anti-conspiracy conspirators resolve that in the interests of the country it will be better if Olah is allowed back to ensure national security.
The cruel absurdity of the play consists in the fact that everybody wishes the best future for his country, everybody wants to save the young anAsphalt Jungle+ auteur français.docd yet unstable democracy, and in the name of those noble intentions they allow the totalitarian tyranny to be installed again. It is a comedy about incompetence, pride, snobbery and naivety of politicians and about iron mechanisms of state government.

Cheb theatre is one of the first professional theatres in the Czech Republic to realize the play (the very first attempt was a semi-professional “Theatre on he Road” in 1992). The author himself claims the play is not one of his favorites; however, we find it more actual today than in the year of its creation. That is why we want to rehabilitate it and return it to Havel “canon”.

Milena, Helga’s house-maid - Kateřina Pokorná

Filip Nuckolls

• stage director
• born on June 20, 1979 in Ústí nad Orlicí, Czech Republic
• graduated form the Prague Academy of Performing Arts in 2004
• member of the creative team of theatres Divadlo v Celetné (Prague) and Činoherní studio (Ústí nad Labem)
• “Conspirators” is his second work in Cheb (first was Claude Confortes’s “Marathon” in 2007)
  
  other works:

B.-M. Koltes: Roberto Zucco
F. G. Lorca: Blood Wedding
G. Weisenborn: Lofter
A. Bovell: Speaking in Tongues
G. Buchner: Woyzeck

C. Palahniuk: Fight Club