This year’s motto is The Death of Theatre and it refers to the current status of theatre (art) in society. It is a long-lasting issue, but it has been demonstrated more in recent months, the time of the pandemic. “Like in previous years, this was one of the reasons we have decided to bring more than fun and offer even more non-traditional places to our viewers this year. We will invite them to two street projects with an ecological message that will take place in Prague and Brno city centers. It is Spielraum Kollektiv’s Burial of a Plastic Bottle and Dry Statement with water playing the main role and performed by the Cruel Mole company. There is no entrance fee and we believe it will draw the attention of the random passers-by. To prove that art can be created and accepted nearly everywhere, not only in the respective buildings, we ill invite the audience to a hotel in Prague to see a project on the borderland between an exhibition and theatre, which has been prepared in association with Jindřich Chalupecký Foundation, as well as an acoustic and visual performance to Petr Krusha’s studio and workshop, and immersive theatre in the former monastery, the biggest project of the Depressive Children Longing for Money so far. The concert of the Funeral Band or stage reading of Tutáč na Tenerife, written by the former gravedigger and contemporary playwright S.d.Ch in the coronavirus crisis, will take place as well. The motto also foreshadows what topics are depicted in most of the productions – catastrophe, termination, victim, the other side, and hell. However, we may promise that the audience will not have any depressive experience from visiting the festival!” says Lenka Dombrovská, the festival’s programmer.

Festival’s visuals were done by graphic designer Petr Kněžek in an intense collaboration with the designer and performer Elena Pecenová, who, apart from the drawings, prepared an experimental motion project designed for the foyer of the Comedy Theatre. The posters also depict the photo of the director, mime, and theatre technician Petr Krusha. “I consider Petr to be the ideal “face” of this year’s edition with the motto The Death of Theatre. I mean the death of the old conventional, ingratiating and well-paid theatre… Petr is famous for being an uncompromising theatremaker (he has won the Alfred Radok Award and Theatre Newspaper Award) who can be seen backstage rather than on stage. When necessary, he works manually. He is the embodiment of a theatre and life alternative person,” says Lenka Dombrovská about this year’s graphic design.

More information and the programme can be found here: www.nextwave.cz