The Divaldo International Theatre Festival: Reviews by Steve Capra

Above: The Grand Theatre, Pilsen

= Congratulations to The Divaldo International Theatre Festival for the 2019 Festival!

The annual festival takes place over ten days in September in the gorgeous city of Pilsen, Czech Republic. This year’s edition - it was the 27th - presented 50 productions from central and eastern Europe, in 35 venues (the venues I saw were quite handsome indeed).

I was happy to have the opportunity to talk with the Festival’s General Director, Jan Burian. He explained that select productions are invited to participate in The Divadlo Festival; they don’t submit themselves. The Festival’s Artistic Board visits “crucial” European productions and festivals as scouts. At least two members of The Artistic Board must see each invited production, and they must agree. The priority is on innovative work.

Pilsen was chosen as the host city because of its convenient location, because it is not Prague, and because it was freed by the US army during the war, not by the Soviets (indeed, there’s a lovely monument saying “Thank you, America”). At the Festival’s founding, “The main task was to educate Czech theater people about the trends and innovations in foreign theater - because before that, the borders had been closed.”

The Festival is wonderful, marvelous theater. If I’m not enthusiastic about a few productions I saw - well, what critic would be enthusiastic about everything he sees?

To read the reviews or the interview with the General Director of the Festival, Jan Burian, return to the previous screen. The reviews are:

SHHH. SHHH. HOOO. WOOF!
The Naive Theatre (Liberec, Czech Republic)

Sternenhoch
National Theatre Prague Opera (Czech Republic)

Bluebeard (Sir Halewyn)
The J. K. Tyl Theatre (Pilsen)

Where is my Home? (A Love letter to Czechslovakia)
Alfa Theatre (Pilsen)

The Cross by the Stream
Slovacke Theatre (Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic)

Musical of the Third Age
BodyVoiceBand (Prague)

Rest in Peace
Priden Mozic Theatre Company (Slovenia)

Hymn to Love
The Chorus of Women Foundation and Polaski Theatre (Warsaw and Poznan, Poland)

Before Sunset
Slovak National Theatre (Bratislava, Slovakia)

Without a Dowry
School of Dramatic Art and Leonid Roberman (Moscow, Russia)

Notes from Exile
Teatr Polonia (Warsaw, Poland)

Hard to be a God
PROTON Theatre (Budapest, Hungary)
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