WORKSHOPS ON DYING

BASED ON A BOOK BY Katarzyna Boni
TRANSLATION Michael Alexa
DIRECTION Štěpán Gajdoš
DRAMATURGY Ondřej Novotný
SCENIC DESIGN AND COSTUMES Ondra Menoušek
MUSIC Ian Mikyska
POSTER Terezie Chlíbcová
PHOTO Patrik Borecký
STARRING Antonie Rašilovová, Vojtěch Hrabák, Hynek Chmelař, Václav Marhold, Matěj Šíma
VOICE Ian Mikyska

THE PERFORMANCE IS 100 MINUTES LONG.
PREMIERE 27. 10. 2023

WARNING: Stroboscope, artificial and cigarette smoke, and fake gunfire are used during the performance. Fake death takes place.

“If people were dragons, they could fly into space, and they wouldn't have to worry about catastrophes.”

When people die on stage, it’s not a real tragedy. It’s a play. The actor or actress (almost) always survives and gets up, accompanied by the applause of the audience. The performance Workshops on Dying was inspired by a book of reportages from Japan written by the Polish writer Katarzyna Boni and by serious debates about the casualties in the contemporary world. Through a series of theatre “workshops,” the performance tries to initiate a natural and playful interaction with the audience and offer an open-minded viewpoint and an impartial perspective on the universal questions of life and death. The workshops explore several topics: how to organise your funeral, why crying hard is beneficial, or how to evaluate the risks of attending a theatre performance. The audience attends a safety training session and a seance, then suddenly dives into the ocean and takes part in a famous film. The performance combines environmental, social, private, and pop cultural motives and offers a complex, haunting picture of the world around us where we have to make choices and deal with things beyond our control.

The book of reportages written by Katarzyna Boni which is called Ganbare! Workshops on Dying describes the events that took place in Japan in 2011 (earthquake, tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear accident) and how ordinary people managed to deal with loss. The traumatising events which make us change our viewpoint are part of our lives, whether we like it or not. These events can have a private or a social dimension: they can take part on the other side of the globe or at our home. The Japanese setting enables both the creators and the audience to keep their distance while exploring the things and values that are truly important during our short life on Earth.

The performance was supported by the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic.