The Decay of Total Thinking can be perceived as a social therapy that allows us to laugh at (if not mock) typical stereotypes, yet not in a lascivious way in the form of wannabe perverse humour, but by confronting both sides (for instance, men and women, feminists and chauvinists, conservatives and liberals). In its haphazard lyricism, it comes across as a poem composed of many contemplations but no answers.

Petra Kupcová, Artikl, 8 October 2021

At the Divadlo na cucky, interviews with the eminent French playwright and novelist Marguerite Duras became the starting point for a provocative collage of images, wavering between poetry and vulgarity. In them, the acclaimed director Júlia Rázusová reveals with humour and sarcasm the unsuspected ease of labelling and condemnation, the boundless space of subjective freedom. The playful scenography evokes the notional “tip of the iceberg”. She finds any need to judge by what is only visible above the surface to be foolish. Especially the agelong necessity to absolutize and generalize both positive and negative phenomena of the female image in society. The protagonists sink into the holes in the soft foam floor as into the flow of author’s thoughts. They embark on the waves of emotions and rational judgements in thunderous and extremely amusing discussions on the subject of women, which all the more concern men. Foolish attempts for absolute control are also relativized by the musical concept that ends up in the hands of a volunteer from the audience, who participates in the uniqueness of the variable performance by randomly selecting composed tracks on an iPad.

screenplay and directed by Júlia Rázusová

music Martin Husovský
set and costume design Markéta Plachá

cast Natalie Golovchenko, Táňa Malíková and Zdeněk Lambor

premiere 6 September 2021

Júlia Rázusová (1982) is one of the most interesting figures among the new generation of Slovak directors. With the Prešov National Theatre, the concept of an uncompromising theatre at the forgotten eastern end of Slovakia, which she initiated and artistically led for nine seasons, she dominated the 2019 DOSKY Awards. Her monodrama Moral Insanity based on Umberto Eco’s novel won in a record five categories and on top of that, she got the Grand Prix New Drama. The artistic style of the graduate of aesthetics, Slovak studies and theatre directing shows features of physical and experimental theatre. Her directorial and dramaturgical concepts often rely on the movement of open-minded and disposed actors who, thanks to the necessary dose of imagination, “play” with the set, the costume and their own body. Rázusová thus innovatively transcends classical theatrical thinking and its boundaries. The feminist gloss Decay of Total Thinking at the Divadlo na cucky is her directing debut on a Czech stage. This February, her production Galapagos premiered at the Divadlo Komedie.