(Review of the play we visited on 11th February, in Prague)
Have you ever experienced death in a shopping centre? One can be seen in Stavovské Theatre in play Spalovač mrtvol. The play is based on a book by Ladislav Fuchs and only the audience can say if it follows the original or not.
Absolutely terrifying and psychotic story is placed in a very friendly scene which is in a shopping centre. If you thought about it a lot, you would find out that these shopping people could be an abstraction of dead people. The whole introduction of the play is very confusing and kind of comic and funny. It´s very hard to say what is going on, and also the details of the book are unknown and unclear. It slowly starts to be a little bit boring and the audience divides into two groups. People who know the story and are strongly gutted by the process, and people who don´t know it very well, so they don´t get anything but enjoy it. However, costumes are made very rigorously and they raise the play very much.
The actors are well known and it´s an extraordinary experience to see so many of them. On the other hand, there are just four main actors who usually have double roles, which is completely unneeded and resentful because they could just use more actors, and it would look way better.
Overall, Spalovač Mrtvol is still a fundamental play to see even if it´s so modern. If you´re a bit too conservative, you´d better choose another play. However, for open-minded people it is a utility play anyway. I can´t really recommend it, though. I can´t say it is horrible. I don´t regret seeing it. Moreover, the architecture of Stavovské Theatre is breath-taking.
Iva Salivarová, septima A
