SODOMA CAMERA This chamber play by Tereza Boučková, inspired by Johannes Urzidil’s short story The Last Bell, tells the story of two housemaid sisters with a touch of absurd drama and distinctly tragicomic moments. The play is set in the occupied Bohemia during World War Two, when Jews were forced to abandon their houses and apartments and leave all their furniture and savings behind. One such apartment falls into the lap of Mařka a former maid in the owner’s family, who, at least at first glance, is now free to enjoy a carefree life. Though disinterested in politics, Mařka can hardly escape the unfolding events, and problems soon begin to materialise.
Eva Hacurová is charming in this role; she grips the audience at the very beginning with her explosive temperament and never lets them go, ecstatically skittering around the ‘apartment’, clutching lovingly the banknotes she has found, preening in front of a wardrobe full of the mistresses’ dresses. She pertinently comments on her feelings and desires of a parvenu, as a common girl who would probably do nothing stupid or wrong but for the exceptional circumstances. (...) Hana Burešová conceives every situation with minute detail and precise timing. Moreover, from the very beginning, she aptly conveys subtle hints that darker twists lure just around the corner and that the maid can hardly preserve her happiness. Indeed, Burešová has always excelled in tragicomic moods. Every now and then, the tension, the premonition of evil is broken by the omnipresent hyperbole. (...) Sodoma Camera is a well-constructed entertaining miniature, yet it captures the essence of the moral dilemmas that Urzidil masterfully embodied in his short story.
– JANA MACHALICKÁ, Lidové noviny
The play presents a great acting opportunity for Eva Hacurová in the lead role, which she seizes with all her might. First shy and embarrassed, then triumphant at the pinnacle of power, next hurt and nearly tearful once fallen – the actor conveys all these moods in her performance with a vitality that keeps the audience’s eyes glued to her for the whole show. It should be noted that Hana Burešová’s subtle and unobtrusive directional approach contributes significantly to the suggestive portrayal of the main character.
– JAN KOLÁŘ, Divadelní noviny
HANA BUREŠOVÁ (1959) She has been one of the artistic directors of the Dlouhá Theatre since 1996, in a tandem with dramaturge Štěpán Otčenášek. She collaborated as a guest with other theatres as well (the National Theatre, the Vinohrady Theatre, the Theatre on the Balustrade, the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem, Viola, M. Držić Theatre in Dubrovnik; she is a regular guest at the Brno City Theatre and the Ungelt Theatre). She studied drama direction at DAMU in Prague and presented her first productions under the DDT theatre co-operative at Řeznická Club in Prague. She worked at the Central Bohemian Theatre in Kladno – Mladá Boleslav from 1988 to 1992, and at the Labyrinth Theatre in Prague between 1992 and 1995. She manifested a strong sense of theatricality and musicality already in her first productions. Her musicality was expressed especially in playful adaptations of operettas and operas for drama actors: Mam’zelle Nitouche, The Barber of Seville, The Stone Guest. Adding serious dramas to comedies in her repertoire (Play Strindberg, End of Carnival, Phaedra, Electra) throughout her twenty-five-year career, she has developed a distinctive style, yet managed to escape stereotypes thanks to the variable types of theatre work. To date, she has staged more than sixty theatre productions. She won the Alfréd Radok Foundation Award for the Best Production of the Year three times (Don Juan and Faust, Death of Paul I, The Break of Noon); she also won the Czech Theatre Critics’ Survey for the Best Production of the Year (The Lantern) and received two nominations for the same award for her first Czech stage adaptation of The Physician of His Honour by Calderón and for Human Comedy by Klíma. In 2021, Hana Burešová received the Ministry of Culture Award for her contribution to theatre as acknowledgement of her ‘novel approach to dramatic texts, the intrinsically coherent development of her distinctive directorial approach, and the successful artistic direction of an ensemble theatre where she and her team reach out to different generations of audiences’. Hana Burešová is the first woman among the nineteen laureates of this award in the field of theatre.
DLOUHÁ THEATRE A repertoire theatre with a permanent company. It was created in 1996 and is funded by the City of Prague. The theatre is headed by managing director Daniela Šálková and the artistic team of director Hana Burešová and dramaturge Štěpán Otčenášek. A basic feature of the theatre’s work is deliberate variety of style and genre. The productions make frequent use of the musical, singing and movement potential of the actors. In the spectrum of Czech theatres, the Dlouhá Theatre has defined itself as one that crosses the boundaries of standard drama in the direction of alternative, musical, puppet and cabaret theatre.
