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The A-hoj! festival took place in Tokyo between 10-14 August 2021. The festival saw 19 local Japanese companies plus 9 theatre performances from 7 countries streamed online, including three representatives of the Czech Republic. These were Alfa Theatre, Drak Theatre, and Radim Vizváry. The Drak Theatre streamed Georges Mélièse’s Last Trick.
The five-day-long festival was dedicated to various forms of the art of theatre, with special attention paid to theatre, pantomime, and other genres. The program also features lectures on history and the current state of Czech puppet theatre, workshops, and many others.
“Drak Theatre was invited by Jakub Hora, the director of Alfa Theatre in Pilsen, to whom I would like to thank for the opportunity. Jakub Hora participated in program dramaturgy for the presentation of Czech puppetry in Japan and, along with Petr Holý, the former director of Czech Centre Tokyo, he had a lecture on “Czech puppets 1945-2021”, said Tomáš Jarkovský, the director of the Drak Theatre.
People could see Georges Mélièse’s Last Trick at the festival on 13 August, then it was part of the festival video library that was subject to a charge for the following 14 days.
Georges Mélièse’ Last Trick directed by Jiří Havelka, with Marek Zákostelecký’s set design, is a tribute to the world of magic, film, and imagination. It premiered in the Drak Theatre in 2013 and was immediately successful with both the general public and professionals in the Czech Republic and all around the world. It was the theatre event of the season in puppet and visual theatre with numerous awards. The Japanese audience will see the broadcast recorded by the Czech Television and directed by Jiří Havelka.
