Evening concerts and open-air events
MOVE Ostrava: Wild Geese
We wanted to spread our wings and fly. As high as human sight can reach, where no words are heard, only wind. And to fly together. Wild Geese is a movement production combining circus, dance, object theatre and music, telling stories between earth and sky, stories of freedom, courage and friendship. The performance draws inspiration from heroes of Central European fairy tales and Arctic sagas, but also from the creators’ own experiences in Greenland, the tundra and the taiga of the Far East.
19 June | Municipal Music Hall
Circo Hopley: Teacrobat
A family acrobatic cooking show in its own tent, celebrating both traditional and contemporary circus. This humorous solo in an acrobat’s kitchen invites audiences to a generous serving of fun and fragrant gingerbread. The generous host offers a rich menu of circus skills, served up in perfectly baked acts. The performance’s one and only hero can not only whirl a wooden spoon and spin around teacups, but also appears as an excellent equilibrist, phenomenal hand-balancer and cheerful clown.
19 and 20 June | Under the Walls
Viktor Černický: PNEU
With this new project, Viktor Černický follows up on his widely acclaimed production PLI, successful both in the Czech Republic and abroad. This time, however, chairs no longer play the leading role. Instead, giant tyres create a performative playground where rules disappear and reappear unexpectedly. PNEU draws on the theory of antifragility and offers a scenic essay on effort, exhaustion and the restoration of strength. It speaks of the desire not to lose lightness even when everything is collapsing, and of a place where disorder becomes fertile ground for the search for new meaning.
20 June | Municipal Music Hall
Vim kolektiv: Sjen
Can I meet a Leshy in today’s forest? And will I get into trouble with Kikimora if I do not tidy up at home? What did the ancient Slavs believe in, and what did they fear? In this theatrical excursion into the world of Slavic mythological figures, we encounter the rusalka, the vodník, the domovik and the plivník through storytelling, masks and puppets. Stories once told by the fire come alive before our eyes and set a remarkable spectacle in motion.
22 June | Under the Walls
Slam Puppetry Company: SLAM PUPPETRY
Slam poetry, but a little differently. Instant theatre. Puppets and objects in unexpected constellations and situations. A new puppetry generation from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at DAMU clashes with matter, audience expectation and time itself, which keeps running relentlessly. Instant puppetry, sharply thrown situations and chance that turns everything upside down. Theatrical freestyle. Rising adrenaline. That is SLAM PUPPETRY.
24 June | Tent by the Fountain
God Save the Drama Queen: The Qu*een
In 1587, the conflict between two queens culminated in the execution of Mary Stuart. Her cousin Elizabeth I had no other choice. Executing a rival meant saving her own neck and place in power. But who are Elizabeth and Mary today? The Qu*een uses the tragic story of two rulers as a starting point for a discussion about women in power. It asks what a woman must go through not only to gain power, but also to keep it. It tells a story of rivalry and hidden affinity alike. It speaks about objectification and systemic pressure and carries the audience into an absurd electoral game show.
25 June | Municipal Music Hall
Music tips
Circus Brothers
A six-member circus family in which every performer is a unique piece of a brightly coloured mosaic, and whose songs certainly will not leave you still. Their original music grows out of traditional Balkan brass and then wraps it in contemporary sonic and genre influences. Brass instruments, violin and clarinet are joined by dense synths, electric guitar and rich vocal harmonies. It is a singular energetic show that you will not forget anytime soon.
19 June | Klicpera Theatre Summer Stage
Načeva
Načeva is a distinctive musical personality who emerged in the early 1990s as the singer of Jáchym Topol’s dark poems. Her career has long been linked with guitarist Michal Pavlíček, with whom she still performs and collaborates. At the same time, she experiments in electronic music, working with strong artistic personalities from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and especially England. Her defining feature is her work with poetry, an original approach and a path beyond genre.
20 June | Drak Theatre Tent
Rusty Cowboys
The band Rusty Cowboys was formed at the jazz department of HAMU. It consists of four musicians coming from different cultural and geographical backgrounds. The members do not need to classify their music anywhere. Yet an attentive listener will recognise, alongside an all-embracing jazz aesthetic, elements of roots rock, americana, folk music and folk song. The quartet’s repertoire is shaped mainly by original compositions by violinist and violist Alois Zatloukal. Strong, gloomy and dirty, but also playful and cheerful melodies are supported by pedal effects and rhythms that are both shifting and steady. Rather than technically dazzling solos, expect musicians listening closely to one another and searching for a shared sonic ideal.
20 June | Tent by the Fountain
DVA
Music critics reserve a special drawer for DVA: “unclassifiable.” The duo of Jan Kratochvíl and Bára Kratochvílová materialises its original musical visions by countless means: their idea of tango can be realised through beatbox, while fragile folk songs may suddenly be framed by clarinet. They also draw on the aesthetics of cabaret and circus. Stories from their own worlds are described in an invented language of their own, which is why their music has come to be known as the “folklore of non-existent nations.”
22 June | Drak Theatre Tent
Lipstick Deer Cabaret
The repertoire is made up of songs from film music, swing, jazz, musical theatre and other sources that are inspiring for vocal multi-part arrangements. Every song has its own original arrangement, both musically and theatrically. The performance itself consists of songs and improvised entries, especially from compere Johana Vaňousová, whose uninhibited style often drives audiences into uncontrollable laughter.
23 June | Drak Theatre Tent
Mastix
Mastix is the first regional Hradec warm-up band, made up of actors and friends of Klicpera Theatre. An opulent party independent of season, time and space. An endless and never-ending show full of songs from productions and beyond them.
23 June | Klicpera Theatre Summer Stage
Fekete Seretlek
From polyrhythmic Macedonian melody to salsa with a Czech flavour, from Orwellian post-apocalyptic hymns to Bulgarian disco, from Russian-klezmer lullabies to English macabre waltzes. Fekete Seretlek mixes genres and cultures to create a unique fusion style rooted in folklore traditions and enriched by strong theatrical exaggeration. One moment you are in a dark cabaret, the next you are swept into a wild dance party that seems as if it might never end. Fekete Seretlek does not merely play for the audience – it draws the audience into its chaotic, mystical, dark and playful world full of unexpected twists.
24 June | Drak Theatre Tent
Nadnárodní divadlo (Transnational Theatre)
William Valerián gathered a group of musicians whose character suggested sufficient signs of joyful absurdity to take part in this musical undertaking drawing on jazz, rock, metal, rap and electronics. It is music of regional insignificance, yet of soulful cultural significance. All members of the band are united by the following: love of beer, love of taking it easy, love of the thousandth cigarette, love of September and October and November and the months beyond, love of cream rolls, and above all love of songs that bind all this together. Supranational boards mean the world. Mother and William Valerián are always right.
25 June | Tent by the Fountain
Tygroo
Tygroo play brass and drums, occasionally adding accordion. Their music is a wild mixture of electronic dance music, Balkan influences, jazz and rap. Each composition borrows something different from those genres and uses in its own way the possibilities of joining styles that seem impossible to connect. The whole concert becomes a journey from one surprise to another. For Tygroo, live performance is something like a ritual, an opportunity to return to primal madness, a moment when a person can joyfully dissolve into music and dance, together with the band and together with the audience.
25 June | Drak Theatre Tent
Hard to frame
The music of Hard to frame is a colourful combination of electronic and acoustic music with elements of jazz, underlined by the fragile voice of singer Karolina. On stage, the band can be tender and dreamlike, yet at the same time it can set you vibrating with deep beats shaped by inspiration from dubstep, drum and bass and minimalist techno.
25 June | Tent by the Fountain
More tips and recommendations
This year again, you can step away from the theatre programme for one of the prepared creative workshops in the open-air area in front of Drak Theatre or in the open-air tent in Žižkovy sady.
If you want to take something home from the festival, come on the final festival day and create your own original merch using iron-on heat-transfer foil inspired by this year’s visual identity, designed once again by Přemysl Zajíček. You can decorate a canvas bag that will be sold on site, or bring your own T-shirt and give it a new life.
An unusual experience is also promised by the tournament of festival theatre companies, which this time will play out entirely different dialogues. They will compete in ball throw. Come and cheer and see what happens when dialogue is moved onto a sports field in the park.
Conversations with festival guests will be led by Filip Titlbach as part of the special festival Studio N Live and by Aneta Jasná, who will focus on How to Build a Festival. For the first time, the festival will also host a special edition of PechaKucha Night. For the fifth time at Regiony, teenage audiences will be able to meet within the discussion project Kitchen Table and reflect on artistic experiences from selected performances.