WERNISCH is Now Playing at the National Theatre in Prague

The work of Ivan Wernisch, a poet, translator, editor, journalist, pundit, mystifier, solitaire, wanderer and dreamer, viewed through the lens of his friend, director Jan Nebeský. Wernisch’s seemingly simple, yet elusive and refined verse, his secular and spiritual poetry, words masked as earthy mockery and wistful confessions of uncertainty and longing, a candid celebration of words and rhythm, new bursts of meanings, sparks of the birth and death of worlds. Beloved poems, forgotten poems, unknown texts and new works written especially for this production. And above all, a dream and word that will materialize in a magical ritual called “theatre”, as a celebration of one of the most important living Czech poets.

“I was walking among the trees / And the prompter’s voice lured me to the fire / Confused actors were colliding with firemen in the smoke / The pulsating hoses connect the city to the sea / The guests sitting at a café window / Watch my every move / With the clatter of beams, the shriek of splinters / The roof has caved in / The capsized boat is sinking / I cling to the wreckage and the waves throw me on the beach / The sun is rising / Shards are falling from the flies / I am sitting on a chair in the middle of a large empty room / Bare slopes surround the house / Deep dark grooves, long furrows on the rolling hillsides / A ladder leans against a white plastered wall."

WARNING: Tobacco products and smoke and fire effects are used in the performance.

The production was made in cooperation with the theatre company JEDL.

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