XX. Flora Theatre Festival

Dear Festival Visitor,

For several months we have been trying our best to properly celebrate with you the 20th anniversary of an event, which grew gradually from a humble presentation of four visiting productions of multi-ensemble theatres to a highly respected festival in heart of Europe. The anniversary Flora Theatre Festival will offer 50 productions on 10 stages; Olomouc will host artists of 16 nationalities.

Among the record number of foreign productions, the section “Regie: Dušan D. Pařízek, Wien” holds the key position. It will introduce three top drama productions of Austrian provenance in the Moravian Theatre including the Best German-Speaking Production of the Year 2015 – The Ridiculous Darkness by Burgtheater, Vienna. The face and personality of the XX. Flora Theatre Festival is Stefanie Reinsperger (title Actress of the Year awarded by the prestigious “Theater heute” magazine) who will introduce herself during two festival evenings in three different productions. The presentation of the Viennese productions by a renowned Czech director will be followed by the presentation of the newest works of Pařízek's colleagues from the former director's trio of the legendary Pražské komorní divadlo (Prague Chamber Theatre) – Kamila Polívková and David Jařab. (The theatre ensemble had its wild and extensive retrospection at the Flora Festival four years ago.)

Lately, some of the most regular guests/theatre makers of the festival have been the director Jan Mikulášek, the dramaturge Dora Viceníková, and the stage designer Marek Cpin, who will together, with the innovative ensemble of the Divadlo Na zábradlí, introduce two original projects which premiered this season – in the case of the production called Obsession, it was actually less than four weeks before the festival!

The extensive performative part of the festival programme will introduce – apart from the traditional section called “Visegrad Performing Arts” – also a new platform named “Dance and Music“. The 20th annual festival is celebrated by the presence and oeuvre of the star of the Scandinavian dance scene, Ingun Bjørnsgaard, whose choreography ceremonially opened the monumental building of the Oslo Opera House, her Norwegian colleague Mia Habib, Dutch choreographer Pauline Roelants, and her directing partner Maarten van der Put, Christine Gaigg from Austria, renowned dance ensemble Hodworks from Budapest, Polish choreographer Piotr Stanek, and many more celebrated creators and dancers.

Another very important part of the festival is also the international conference “Visegrad Dance Platform?” which takes place during the first festival weekend – attended by around 50 Czech and foreign theatre experts (artists, managers, reviewers) on the premises of the co-organizing Na Cucky Theatre (Divadlo na cucky).

I feel there is no point to list all the “items” of the programme that the XX. Flora Theatre Festival is proud to show in the middle of May. There will be a lot of them and I hope to meet you at many of these occasions.

On behalf of the whole DW7 organizing team,
I wish you a lot of inspiring festival moments,

                            Petr Nerušil
                            XX. Flora Theatre Festival Director