Man in the Holocene

TRANSLATION Ivana Führmann Vízdalová
DIRECTION AND ADAPTATION Jan Doležel, Justina Grecová and Jana Vaverková
DRAMATURGY Ondřej Novotný
COSTUMES AND SCENIC DESIGN Justina Grecová, Františka Iblová
MUSIC Matěj Šíma
POSTER Terezie Chlíbcová
PHOTO Alžběta Drcmánková
STARRING Hynek Chmelař, Antonie Rašilovová, Aicha Roubíčková, Lucie Roznětínská, Matěj Šíma

PREMIERE 18 October 2024

"Nature needs no names. Rocks don't need memory."

Mountains, landscapes, glaciers and chestnut trees are always changing. Slopes slide, the weather is unpredictable and the dinosaurs are long gone. Caduta di massi! The quiet green valley of the Swiss Alps is anything but lifeless. At least, that's what Mr. Geiser says. Mr. Geiser is a man, and men appear in the landscape. He appears in the green valley of the Swiss Alps, bringing a world of encyclopaedia clippings, science books, charts and information. How does the golden ratio work? Novels don’t interest him, but pictures of extinct amphibians do. He knows the slopes are shifting. He has a hunch. Yet, memory is uncertain. Alone, separated from his family, he lives enclosed in the heights of the Alps, cut off from civilisation. Someone still lives in the green valley. Objects in Mr. Geiser’s home have a life of their own, appearing and disappearing. The garden wall and the pagoda of crispbread crumble. The slopes keep sliding. Did Mr. Geiser spot a newt in the bathroom or the living room? He forgets where he placed his hat a moment ago, but recalls, with perfect clarity, an old mountain expedition. Or does he? Man is nothing more than an unreliable fragment of the whole. His mind, too, is fractured. The newt bears a striking resemblance to a dinosaur. Is Mr. Geiser human or an amphibian? A man in the Holocene.

The production is a loose adaptation of one of Max Frisch's final prose works Man in the Holocene (1979). Developed by a director-dramaturgical collective, it emerges from a shared exploration of individual themes. The reconstruction of a man's life unfolds through memory and collective reflection, questioning where we store our knowledge and recollections today—between digital spaces and the physical world of theatre. The production engages with the unique features of the Theatre X10 while also extending beyond its walls, taking the audience to the streets and public spaces. The audience is invited on a one-of-a-kind journey—a mountain hike, a tour around Zurich, or an exploration of the Národní třída street, seeing their surroundings from a new perspective in the company of the performers.

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