May 10th Tue, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Divadlo na cucky
Lucie Ferenzová et al. THE CLEANING RULES Divadlo na cucky – Kolonie, z.s. – A studio Rubín
“House-cleaning is typically only visible when it is not performed.” (Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo)
The premiere of a production about domestic chores, care and transnational parenting based on interviews with women working in the least valued professions, directed by Lucie Ferenzová. “Juggling with themes and mops” in a dark, documentary production.
A bit of dark pop, a bit of juggling with themes and a mop. A dark documentary at its core which is brightly coloured on the cleaned surface. Voices from the East and from the lowest depths of the work that Czech society does not want to see, but someone must do it, right?
Three speakers, women characters permeating one other, talking about the unwritten rules of care that have shaped gender for centuries. Cleaning superheroines? Eurydices waiting in the shadow realm while the future is loading? Zero-waste moms buying emotions and quality time for their children? Sisterhood, or a fiercely competitive environment, where Czech women are “commuter workers” while Ukrainian women “migrate” for work? Some things need cleaning with water, some should be dry-cleaned, some require daily cleaning, and others just cannot be cleaned at all. And society, just like cleaning, has its own rules. And then, war arrives. And the dust settles again on clean, silent objects. And the dust turns to dust and talks at night about the last layer of the Earth being perfectly capable of doing without humans.
The new title from Divadlo na cucky, co-produced with A Studio Rubín and the Kolonie association, is another socio-critical contribution to our “politically correct” present. Michal Hába’s recent production, Hrdinové kapitalistické práce (Heroes of Capitalist Labour – presented at the 2021 Flora Theatre Festival), was based on Saša Uhlová’s reports, which were created using the method of infiltration and the eyewitness testimony of the lowest-paid jobs. Lucie Ferenzová and her collaborators go in the opposite direction. Based on a thorough collection of interviews, research and visits to non-profit organisations, they created a purely authorial text with elements of docudrama, which thematises the phenomenon of cleanliness and cleaning in all its meanings and which lets members of minorities living in the Czech Republic, working in the worst paid jobs, (ideally without any contract, of course) speak out. This appealing theatrical montage with live music and a powerful visual and emotional side insightfully addresses the neuralgic phenomena of society.
directed by Lucie Ferenzová
expert consultant Mgr. Petra Ezzeddine, Ph.D.
dramaturgy Dagmar Fričová
set design and assistant dramaturge Andrijana Trpković
music Markéta Ptáčníková
production Kristýna Milaberská, A studio Rubín, Divadlo na cucky
cast Anita Krausová, Martina Jindrová and Táňa Malíková
premiere 9 May 2022 at the 25th FLORA
Lucie Ferenzová (1981), already as a student of Czech at Charles University and theatre dramaturgy and directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, collaborated with Divadlo Komedie and Divadlo Na zábradlí, where she participated as dramaturge on productions such as Velvet Havel and Macbeth – Too Much Blood (Best Productions of 2014 and 2017) and where she headed the alternative space Eliadova knihovna. Her site-specific projects, staged readings and authorial adaptations dominated, among others, the Multiprostor Louny and the Prague stages of MeetFactory, Roxy/NOD and Divadlo X10. As the in-house director of A studio Rubín, Ferenzová has recently gained a reputation for her adaptations of novels, whether foreign bestsellers such as Heinrich Böll’s The Clown (or Klaunovy názory), Murakami’s Norwegian Wood (presented as Osobní Fudži/A Personal Fuji), or Czech prose debuts such as Jezero (The Lake) by Bianca Bell and Smrtholka (Deathmaiden) by Lucie Faulerová. She tends towards unspectacular, but multi-layered chamber productions with elements of physical theatre, the strength of which lies primarily in meticulous dramaturgical preparation that enables her to view the subject from multiple angles and convey new, often unsuspected, contexts to the audience.
Lucie Ferenzová is the founder of the Kolonie association, which focuses on contemporary social, political and cultural issues. It oscillates between physical, musical and dramatic theatre and does not fear experimentation, using modern technology as part of the dramaturgy. At the Flora Theatre Festival, the association previously gained attention with a monodrama about growing up in Yugoslavia during the war conflict, One Night Stand/Up! (2019). Its members are the multi-genre artists Andrijana Trpković, Markéta Ptáčníková (Dvořáková), Anita Krausová, Jindřiška Křivánková, Jana Kozubková, Jana Hauskrechtová, and finally Lucie Ferencová, after whose play (staged at Divadlo Na zábradlí in 2011) this group of women takes its name.
Over the more than fifty years of its existence, A studio Rubín has earned a reputation in Czech theatre culture as an unmistakable independent stage, which in all its eras – including the current one – has mainly focused on authorial productions and the creation of new theatre texts or original adaptations of literary works. The history of the Rubín studio is associated with the theatre artist Radim Vašinka. Other personalities who significantly shaped the theatre include Zdeněk Potužník, Michal Dočekal and the Divadlo Nablízko ensemble; this later included Petr Kolečko with Daniela Špinar and Jan Frič. The progressive dramaturgy of contemporary Rubín under the artistic direction of Dagmar Fričová concentrates primarily on the creation of original productions with a strong generational statement. Regular collaborators of A studio Rubín include Lucie Ferenzová, Ondřej Štefaňák, Jiří Ondra, Jana Hauskrechtová, Jan Frič, Dagmar Radová, Barbara Herz, and the theatre association Kolonie as a stable co-production partner.
photo Lenka Glisníková / Marcel Skýba