NÁRODNÍ DIVADLO - A hectic yet beautiful September morning. 8.52 a.m., railway station, platform, the departure signal sounds in two minutes. A man is thinking about a quarrel with his wife, a young couple is discussing the structure of a romantic comedy, a hungover policeman is looking out of the window at a woman running vainly after a speeding train...
Each of them travels with their own story, each of them travels with their own dream, each of them travels with their own worries. And everyone has their song in their head. All the buzz on the train is observed from the window by a man watering flowers and through the café window by Sally, the waitress, who is humming her all-time favourite song "Bette Davis Eyes" along with the radio. And then the world stops. It's 8.55 and Sally's coffee cup falls out of her hand. The train explodes right in front of her eyes...
How to describe the indescribable? And how to describe the minutes before? Roland Schimmelpfennig remains true to his typical poetics, post-dramatic construction of the text, refrain and variable cast of characters. Minute by minute, he takes us back through the story, revealing the thoughts, desires, passions and dreams of all unsuspecting people, destinies that both merge and disappear in a moment of explosion. He may cite the 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid as his inspiration, but the sudden apocalypse, somehow reversible in the wormhole of time, is actually part of all his recent dramas. Because of the tragedy at the Prague philosophy faculty in December, this play has unfortunately become cruelly topical for us as well.
Yet he has a strong hope and a challenge not to give up. Everything could have turned out differently if Sally and the man with the sports bag had met. And with a little luck, time can be stopped. Or at least catch a falling cup.
Production photographer: Martin Špelda
WARNING: The performance uses tobacco products, strobe lights and special sounds that could cause discomfort to sensitive viewers and viewers with compensatory hearing aids.
national-theatre.cz / gnews.cz-jav
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