Day of the Oprichnik


author: Vladimir Sorokin
director: Kamila Polívková
dramaturgy: Jan Horák
scene: Kamila Polívková
costumes: Kamila Polívková
music: Ivan Acher
translation: Libor Dvořák
author of the adaptation: Kamila Polívková
visual art collaboration: Andrijana Trpković
stage manager: Zuzana Formánková

cast: Karel Dobrý, Vanda Šípová, Natálie Řehořová, Evženie Nízká, Petr Šmíd, Kamil Valšík, Pavel Jánský, Markéta Hlinovská, Irena Zykanová, Laďka Čížková, Hana Jansová, Anna Brabcová, Zdeňka Valšíková, Eva Dryjová, Alžběta Nováková, Lucie Křápková, Kateřina Eliášová, Alexandr Puškin, Lukáš Adam
length: 70 minutes

In a single day over the course of which the action takes place, Sorokin carefully constructs, in a terrifyingly utopian form, a Russian empire of the not-too-distant future. The country is totally isolated from the outside world, its only supplier is China, and the economy is kept afloat through the export of oil and gas. In the shops, Russians can choose from two kinds of each product, since, as Sorokin writes, when people have two to choose from, and not three or thirty three, they feel internal contentment. And when people are internally contented, you can do great things with them.” In the novel’s stage adaptation, the audience witnesses a bizarre show full of grotesque scenes, opera, ballet and comedy numbers, narrations of bloodcurdling stories, performances of religious rituals and drug-induced ecstasies. Gradually, it turns into a march-past of cruelties and a demonstration of absolute power that cannot be challenged. What began with a morning wash and steam bath ends with the water grown cold and a lifeless body floating in it, with a dog’s head…

 

premiere: 7. 2. 2013
foto video critics