The Mark Ravenhill 2023 Award went to Petr Hašek for the performance of 27 by Geisslers Hofcomoedianten. The title refers to the Old Town Square execution that took place on 21 June 1621 and is widely known as the execution of 27 Czech noblemen, thus the performance is also called Jan Mydlář’s Execution Show. The award is associated with the best Czech theatre production of a new play. The eight-member jury selected seven shows out of approximately 90 premieres in 2022. Director Petr Hašek accepted the award on 28 May at Divadlo Vila Štvanice.

The following plays were nominated apart from the award-winning production of 27: The Father Watches the Daughter at the National Theatre Prague, Fifty at Dejvice Theatre, The Events at South Bohemian Theatre, Discoland at Theatre on the Balustrade, Breath at Meetfactory, and Everybody Deserves a Purgatory by Depresivní děti touží po penězích.

“Although 27 draws the audience’s attention at first and second sight due to the spatial concept, actors’ vigor and drive, which are typical for Geisslers Hofcomoedianten, the basis of the extraordinary production lies in a remarkable and clever play. It is a truly honorable historical drama, which tells a story of the Bohemian Estates Uprising through today’s lens, thus we can read many contemporary parallels,” David Drozd commented on the jury’s choice as its member, theatre researcher, and critic.

Geisslers Hofcomoedianten has been engaged in contemporary theatre inspired by the baroque. They do not reconstruct original baroque plays but they provide the original story with a contemporary dimension, discover timeless topics, forgotten stories, references to famous theatre figures, and parallels between the past and present. Geisslers’ regular premises have been Divadlo Vila Štvanice since 2014.

Cena Marka Ravenhilla for the production of a new text is the award for Czech authors for their work in contemporary drama. A new text is understood as a new piece written within ten years before the respective award. The awarded production is selected as a result of a consensus of the members of the Council of the Mark Ravenhill Award based on the symbiosis of a good text and the quality of its staging. The Council also monitors authorial and collective production, with the decisive factors of the final text and its transferability outside the specific production and theatre for which it was written.

Source: divadlo.cz 
Photo: Award-winning performance “27”, © Geisslers Hofcomoedianten