An Enemy of the People | Perform Czech

A wild comedy about liberal democracy

Ibsen´s play An Enemy of the People has at all times and in all circumstances been considered „always topical.“ The auteur version of director Michal Hába is based on this eternal topicality. Has nothing really changed in hundred years? Is it enough to forever stage the theme of abusing power and democratic processes, or is there a deeper issue stemming from the systém itself? The play, presented by the Lachende Bestien company is an „ecoterrorist“ production with a Brechtian commentary, focusing on the limits of liberal democracy and the self-destructiveness of present-day capitalism, in the fashion of the popular Czech fairy-tale „Doggie and Pussycat: How They Were Making a Cake.“

An Enemy of the People is a coproduction of the Lachende Bestien theatrical company and Městská divadla pražská (Prague Municipal Theatres) at the Komedie Theatre.

It opened on January 19, 2019 (Komedie Theatre)

About the company

Lachende Bestien, founded in 2011, today an acknowledged alternative theatrical company in the Czech Republic. LB focuses primarily on provocative, socio-critical and political theatre. It presents „unpretending playership“, characterized by open communication with the audience, irony and detachment. The stage form is based on the theme – LB presents both „auteur“ projects and happenings, as well as interpretations of texts by other writers and dramatists.

Since 2015 LB theatre company is in residence at the Venuše ve Švehlovce Theatre in Prague and has produced the following productions:Werner Schwab´s Pornogeography (2015), Ferdinand! (2016), based on texts of Václav Havel, Szechwan (2017, based on Brecht) and The Mission (2018, based on Müller). An Enemy of the People was made in co-production with Prague City Theatres.