The Declarations of Dependencies

THE DECLARATIONS OF DEPENDENCIES It all began with a research. The authors sought answers from anonymous theatregoers about how we relate to the theatre and why we need it. “I reckon dependency means you are doing something even if it hurts you. Or perhaps that you’re doing it even though you know it’s hurting you...” What stories are you dependent on? How does theatre depend on reality and vice versa? What does theatrical hell look like? A staged reading of the collected material performed by female researchers, an actor, a set designer, and a musician.

During this hour-and-a-half elusive production, the audience is confronted with different, often humorous, but also bitter answers to questions contained in a qualitative research questionnaire, answered by a diverse sample of anonymous theatregoers and various professionals, including a climatologist, a hydrologist and even a theologian. It thus provides a truly complex yet sensitive view of people-to-people, people-to-theatre and people-to-world relationships, as well as an individual’s perception of their place in creative work and life.
– LEA VALENTOVÁ, krith.phil.muni.cz/theatrocen

ANNA KLIMEŠOVÁ (1990) originally studied Theatre and Education at JAMU, which mainly teaches how to work with non-professionals. After a one-year scholarship in Berlin at the Universität der Künste, she continued her studies at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at DAMU under the guidance of Jiří Havelka. Already during her studies, she became a prominent director of original productions. She is one of the founding members of the 8lidí group and, together with Petr Erbes, she forms the artistic tandem of the new form of the 11:55 group. She hails from the Krkonoše region, where she founded the Horní Maršov – Open Museum cultural community platform, which invites land artists and illustrators to the Krkonoše Mountains and creates community theatre together with the locals. Her artistic style is characterised by a high degree of imagination, associative flow and personal thematic input. Her works include The Prince (Komedie Theatre, 2019), Should I stay, or should I go (11:55, NoD, 2021), Mia and the Whale (Minor Theatre, 2022), Die Reise (Terén and Landestheater Niederösterreich, 2022), Greetings and kisses to all off you (Goose on a String Theatre, 2023), About Pavel (Theatre on the Balustrade, 2023), The Declarations of Dependencies (Library of Eliade, 2023), The Captain’s First Dodge (11:55, Vzlet, 2023).

TEREZA MAREČKOVÁ (1980) is a theatre dramaturge and director, also involved in theatre studies. Since 2008, she has worked at the Masopust Theatre. In the upcoming season, she will become the head dramaturge of the Dlouhá Theatre in Prague.

KATEŘINA SOUČKOVÁ is a founding member of the Pomezí association and in the past she has collaborated with the Prague venues Meetfactory, Alfred ve dvoře Theatre and Jatka78. Until the end of the 51st season she worked as the head dramaturge at the Drama Studio.

MASOPUST is an independent theatre company based in the Eliade Library of the Theatre on the Balustrade. It was formed in 2008 by the creative team of the production of Topol’s play The End of Masopust, which was staged by Štěpán Pácl and dramaturge Tereza Marečková with DAMU graduates (Miloslav König, Magdalena Borová, Pavla Beretová, Richard Fiala, Jan Meduna, Lukáš Příkazký and Jiří Panzner). Since its inception, Masopust has been active in the field of dramaturgical archaeology connected with contemporary themes and imaginative direction, focusing on unperformed or seemingly unperformable texts that offer a multitude of marginal or too introspective texts, often of spiritual nature. In addition to Štěpán Pácl (Brand, Chupacabra, El Príncipe Constante), regular directors include Anna Davidová (Orlando, Seven Samurai, Antieva), Jan Frič (Angels Among Us, Hunger), Jan Nebeský (The Thief’s Journal, Fredy) and Miloslav König (Genet, The Misunderstanding), who is also the artistic director of the association. In January this year, the theatre announced its closure.