Laterna magika (CZ) → Iron Horse: Fractured

19–24
  • City center
  • Performance

About project

Laterna magika and Signal Festival present a theatre and dance production by Miřenka Čechová composed for the courtyard of the Clam-Gallas Palace. The viewer is drawn into the play as a passenger waiting on the platform and has the opportunity to record the characters’ stories through the limited perspective of the windows of the passing trains. The fleeting and framed glimpse of the situations creates a sense of chance, suspense, voyeurism and fatality. It draws us into the characters’ private moments and invites us to co-create the story through our own experience and imagination. The train here is a metaphor for the pulsation of time. It represents the knowledge of life, with all its twists and turns, as well as encounters with an uncertain future. The passing world outside the train window is all that we cannot or do not want to see in the rush of life. But who is able to stop, concentrate and see the meaning in their own finitude?

How many times in your life have you overheard a snippet of conversation, glimpsed a brief segment of a meeting, a fragment of a situation or someone’s perspective that has stuck in your mind and then triggered an avalanche of images unfolding a sequel? The fragments of actions and lives that have been thrown our way for a few seconds become the imaginary fellow travelers we meet on our life’s journey. They have been given names and stories, but they are ephemeral and changeable, like a glimpse of a face in the window of a passing train. 

The performance starts every day at 7pm and repeats every 20 minutes.  Special for Signal VIP, the performance will take place every festival night from 6:30pm.

Cast

František Beleš
Kateřina Císařová
Ondřej Dvořáček
Dita Kaplanová
Ester Valtrová
Václav Vašák

Artist

Laterna magika is a multimedia and multi-genre theatre. It is one of the ensembles of the Prague National Theatre and performs on the New Stage of the National Theatre. Its unique approach to theatrical poetics has earned it a worldwide reputation. Its basic principle, i.e. the interactive connection of film projection with movement and acting, has gradually been complemented by new technologies, such as digital projection or new media, including real-time programmable software. Laterna Magika's productions combine multi-genres through movement, dance, voice, words, music and visual elements, which are its unique expression.

Artistic team: 

Miřenka Čechová is a performer, choreographer, director and writer who is currently one of the most prominent figures in experimental dance theatre. While studying at the DAMU and HAMU in Prague, she won a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to American University in Washington DC, where she founded a new field of physical theatre. As an author and performer, she has created over forty full-length productions, many of which have won major international awards. As a director and choreographer, she has created numerous productions and operas, including Opera and the French Revolution, for which she was commissioned by the American Baroque Orchestra Opera Lafayette and performed at the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York. More recently, she has been heavily involved in documentary dance theatre (docu-dance), for example in the Invisible series about women artists, multimedia projects and curates activist performances. Miřenka's work can currently be seen at the Acropolis Palace in the projects Miss AmeriKa, Baletky or Light in the Darkness, a theatrical work created in collaboration with choreographer and performer Radim Vizváry. 

Linda Arbanová is a VJ, lecturer and visual artist. Until 2021 she was a film teacher and director of the Prague Aero School. She currently creates concert projections, music videos, promotional and documentary videos for the bands Jakub König and Hvězdy, Zvíře jménem Podzim, Kittchen, Lenka Dusilová and others. She has worked on projections for several theatre performances directed by Miřenka Čechová. She leads VJing workshops. 

Martin Hůla is a musician, sound designer, composer and creator of projection content and sound components of performances. He is known for his solo projects as rapper and producer Bonus, but also as composer and producer of minimalist electronic music Martin Tvrdý and composer of theatre and film music. He is currently working with the National Theatre or Spitfire Company. He has composed original music for dance projects by Jiří Bartovanec and films by Jiří Havelka and Miroslav Krobot. As a teacher he has led many workshops for children and adult professionals.

Režie, koncept, choreografie: Miřenka Čechová

Hudba, video art: Martin Hůla Tvrdý

Videomapping: Linda Arbanová

Kostýmy: Kateřina Jirmanová

Scénografie: Jan Tomšů

Umělecký šéf Laterny magiky: Radim Vizváry

Produkce: Dominika Flajzarová

PR: Martina Sedláková, Dita Táborová

Technická produkce: Jan Veselý, Pavel Moc, Tomáš Studnička

Performers

Zuzana Fikrová

Michaela Hradecká

Eva Stará

Michaela Stará

Adriana Štefaňáková

Markéta Vajdová

Lukas Blaha

Florent Golfier-Brechmann

Dalibor Lekeš

Andrej Štěpita

Tomáš Wortner

Roman Zotov

 

Location

The opulent Clam-Gallas Palace is one of the most important Baroque monuments in Prague. There aren't many Baroque palaces in the world that have survived in such excellent condition, providing an insight into the life of an aristocratic family of the period. The interior centrepiece of the palace is the grand staircase, surrounded by a plethora of beautiful interiors that are a pompous display of 18th century sculpture and painting. The outdoor centrepiece is the central courtyard of the palace, which provides an authentic setting for the production of Laterna Magica.

Supported by

  • Partner of the installation

    National Theatre

  • Supported by

    Christie Digital

  • Supported by

    The City of Prague Museum

  • Supported by

    Hlavní město Praha