*1971
Czech theater and film director, screenwriter and set designer. After graduating from the Brno JAMU, he worked in the Theatre Hadivadlo in Brno until 1997. Between 2002 and 2012 he was the artistic director of the award-winning Prague Theater Komedie. Since 2012 he has worked as a freelancer and directed on the Czech and Slovak stages, and since 2018 he has been the regular director of the Theatre Na Zábradlí in Prague. In 2004, his first feature film Vaterland – Hunting Diary premiered, in 2010 the film Head-Hands-Heart, and in 2018, the feature documentary Vratislav Effenberger or The Hunt for the Black Shark. As a director and playwright, he works with Czech Television (Czech Photo documentary series). He also works as a teacher at the Prague Film Academy (FAMU).
The author David Jařab can hardly be torn away from the director David Jařab. He has directed over 50 productions, most of which he has written himself. Only in exceptional cases he takes on texts by other authors and only in rare cases he entrusts his plays to other directors. Recently, Viktor Tauš (Amerkánka, Slaughterhouse78) or Štěpán Pácl (Za vodou, Moravian-Silesian National Theater) have been given the privilege to stage his text.
His own work includes a number of plays and screenplays, which in most cases were created for theaters with which he was at one time associated as an artistic director.
During his artistic direction at the Theatre Komedie, he presented, among other things, his texts: Parsifal, Prisoners or a cycle of his plays, which were freely related to specific localities of Prague (Vodičkova – Lazarská, Žižkov, Karlovo náměstí). At the same time, he directed a number of significant adaptations of literary works such as The Suffering of Prince Sternenhoch (based on the book by Ladislav Klíma), the Petrolejové lampy (based on the book by Jaroslav Havlíček), Weissenstein (based on the book by Johannes Urzidil) and The Heart of Darkness (based on the book by Joseph Conrad).
Since 2017, he has been significantly associated with the Theater Na Zábradlí, where he works as one of the regular directors. He staged there his original plays Macbeth – Too Much Blood, Good Boys, The Curious Case of Mr. Holmes, Ladies no Gentlemen, The Secret Agent.
Victim
Cast: 3 men, 2 women
An existential grotesque or an apotheosis of love and betrayal?
A woman takes revenge on her husband for treason and is willing to close the deal with the powers of evil. The consequences are frightening for everyone involved, but also comic for the viewer.
The husband is a judge. He falls for a young underaged girl. He can’t resist it. His wife figures it out. She’s furious. She threatens to destroy him if he doesn’t end his relationship with the girl. The girl is not yet fifteen. Revealing the relationship would have a fatal social and professional impact on the spouse, and it is also a criminal offense.
One day, in her husband’s absence, the wife invites someone over. We don’t know who it is. The woman will never reveal it. The husband comes home and it is clear to him that someone was there. However, the whole situation is very strange. The woman intensifies her pressure. The husband does not know how to solve the situation. He is paralyzed by it. However, he cannot find the strength to give up his addiction to the young girl.
Out of desperation, he decides to jump out a window. Alone? Or did someone help him?
There are two criminal investigators nearby on call. They visit the crime scene. The woman is in shock. She doesn’t want to explain anything to them. The police find some clues that she had good reason to kill the man. They also realize that someone was in the apartment before the husband returned. Someone else. The woman is not willing to say anything. The chances of escaping prison are very small, almost non-existent. Men offer her impunity in exchange for surrendering herself to their hands. It is a strange business, but the woman eventually begins a self-destructive approach.
The police find out that the judge was having an affair with a girl. It is the only evidence that there were problems between the spouses. No one else knew. The girl herself is the only proof. If she accidentally fell under a car, there would be no other witnesses, right? Does the woman want her dead? Are police officers the executors of a woman’s secret wish? Are they also executing punishment for this frightening wish? Whoever wants to play with evil should be prepared for the consequences. It’s not a game to leave in the middle of.
The agreement is confirmed. Evidence and witnesses destroyed.
Police officers gradually visit, abuse and abuse again the woman. The woman gradually loses herself and becomes a mere object of absurd perverse practices. There is no limit. But the woman never reveals that she did not kill the man. She takes on the role of victim. She wants to be blamed for his death. Institutional power destroys personal freedom. Marriage and police arbitrariness are laws that enslave and destroy human nature. Repentance as self-destruction.
Who did the woman let in? What gave things that terrifying momentum? Are policemen real people or a construct, principles of primitive evil?
We are not real characters of flesh and blood. We are only principles, only characters that evoke a will to destroy. We are just flames that can start a nice fire.
Is it all self-punishment? Is it a disorder that has happened in the head? The woman thinks that when she gives her husband absolute love, she has the right to destroy him when he destroys their relationship. She gradually re-evaluates things and receives punishment. But is it really just a punishment? Can the role of the victim have the dimension of sexual satisfaction too?
Torture eventually ends in death. Where there is nothing left to feed on, the parasites must pull away. One sad chapter is closed.
And we still don’t know who visited the woman on the eve of the destruction. But we probably already know that.
Good Boys
Cast: 4 men, 2 women
A black comedy reacting to the excommunication of the mafia from the Catholic Church by Pope Francis.
Time is bad, time is bad. We are used to the fact that a decent person can’t just walk down the street without a weapon but he is not allowed to go to church anymore either. He is no longer able to pray to his God because he is simply forbidden to do so. This is an apocalypse. The only chance is a return to respect and esteem. We are all one family after all. We swim together. Whether we are healthy or have mould on our feet. It’s just them and us. Two organizations, two traditions, two armies and one faith.
