• Jakub Čermák: The Return of the King (Návrat krále)

    A song-based philosophical retro musical about homesickness and a singer who (didn't) emigrate. For secondary schools.

    If you can't anymore, sing more!

    The popular singer Gabriel Král lives in a state-owned, corporate dormitory and tries to fully fulfill all obligations to his homeland, the audience, but above all to music. After nights between the umakart walls, he listens to Wish Songs and dreams of a perfect, shining show, in which the singers not only have costumes sewn with a flood of sequins, but are also accompanied by graceful and pitch-perfect female vocalists. They have it all over there, far in the West. Whereas here, in a centrally planned system, everything is dull, imperfect, amateurish. Gabriel Král feels that the time has come to change things, to take responsibility for the muses and his talent into his own hands... And so one day he disappears. Where else but to the land where they have everything he dreamed of. Where he will finally have everything he's been longing for. However, he soon finds that no one is interested in his romantic songs about bringing bodies and souls together, and that local vaudeville shows have their dark side. His ideals and visions are being undermined. All the more so when he gets to know the fates of other emigrants. Fortunately, there is music, a balm for the soul, whoever Gabriel Král signed it to.

    The original philosophical retro musical from recent Czechoslovak history was commissioned by the Švanda Theatre. The author of the text and the director Jakub Čermák together with the composer of the music Petr Marek (from the band Midi Lidi) play very imaginatively, even with Bernhardian skepticism, with the theme of idol and ideal, emigration and longing for the homeland, as well as with the obscurity of pop music, which to this day awakens a strangely perverse sentiment in many of us.

    Please note that the production contains explicit expressions and scenic images unsuitable for viewers under the age of 15.
    Please note that there are sharp light impulses of stroboscopic nature in the production.

     

    CHARACTERS AND CAST
    GABRIEL KRÁL: Jan Mansfeld
    LÁDÍNEK, MANAGER IN THE CSSR: Jakub Tvrdík
    STATE AGENCY DIRECTOR, FOREIGN MANAGER: Jan Grundman
    DIRECTOR'S WIFE, SINGER IN THE CSSR, SOCIALIST WOMAN AND OTHERS: Anna Grundmanová
    SOUND DESIGNER, CONDUCTOR IN EMIGRATION AND OTHERS: Miroslav Hruška
    VOCALIST, SOCIALIST WOMAN, SINGER IN EMIGRATION: Nataša Bednářová
    CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION, SOCIALIST WOMAN, WOMAN AT THE CONCERT AND OTHERS: Bohdana Pavlíková
    HAIRDRESSER, SOCIALIST WOMAN, GERMAN WOMAN WITH BULLDOG AND OTHERS: Marie Štípková
    BANNED SINGER, GERMAN WOMAN WITH A POODLE: Andrea Buršová
    GENERAL SECRETARY, SINGER IN THE CSSR AND OTHERS: Luboš Veselý
    SINGER IN EMIGRATION, SINGER IN THE CSSR AND OTHERS: Marek Frňka
    SINGER IN THE CSSR, MAN IN THE BACKGROUND OF A CONCERT IN THE CSSR AND OTHERS: Matěj Anděl
    FIRST PIONEER, SOCIALIST WOMAN AND OTHERS: Štěpánka Pečenková
    SECOND PIONEER, SOCIALIST WOMAN AND OTHERS: Natálie Hejlová
    COMPARS: Barbora Blažková, Natálie Eliášová, Tereza Hasserová, Klára Müllerová, Marta Veselá, Jolana Zachová 

    PRODUCTION TEAM
    DIRECTOR: Jakub Čermák
    DRAMATURGY: Martina Kinská
    STAGE DESIGN: Pavlína Chroňáková and Martina Zwyrtek
    MUSIC: Petr Marek (Midi Lidi)
    CHOREOGRAPHY: Marek Svobodník
    COREPETITION: Zdeněk Dočekal
    ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR: Barbora Soukupová Osvaldová
    STAGE MANAGER: Petra Štanclová
    PRODUCTION: Tereza Marková

     

    CONTACT

    Mahulena Košťálová
    tel.: +420 257 321 334, mob.: +420 724 003 857
    e-mail: obchodni (at) svandovodivadlo.cz

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