Treading the boards, which mean the world, on the audience’s heads

The Historic Town Hall has again heard the applause of an enthusiastic audience. The students from the Košice Conservatoire were the first to provide us with an artistic experience, persuading the organizers and everyone present with their Demon, that another generation of talented artists is emerging in Košice. Later they handed over to a trio from the Theatre on the Platform; their Cow’s Internals took everybody into total darkness. 

Crying on stage

Lermontov’s work was brought back to life by the work of the young students from the conservatoire. The emotion expressed on stage touched the whole audience. Demon falls in love with a young princess, kills her betrothed, tries to escape his curse and return to the path of righteousness, but it is not always so easy to go back. The bad spirit takes his love away, back to his own world. The talented protagonists tried to give answers to existential questions. Their acting performances included singing too. Anežka Petrová, playing the young princess, had to bring up tears due to her forced love, and crying caused her no problems.

“We chose to use a lot of symbolic means to further intensify the audience’s enjoyment from the piece,”  explained director Marta Vilhanová just before the performance.

The head manager of the performance, Lýdia Vargová was pleased by the high level of participation by visitors: “Considering that this was the first event in the opening ceremony, I was a bit skeptical. I did not expect such a big audience. The performance was great and we coped with the technical side. We lit the scene and during the whole performance we played with the light. Because the actors were students, people were probably expecting a try-out, but they got much more.”  

Stage “on the heads of the audience”

The main idea of the Theatre on the Platform is to bring out emotions. They have done so with Cow’s Internals. The trio of Kočiš, Psotková and Wernerová performed the whole play in the lobby of the Historic Town Hall in the darkness among seated audience members, who they were almost touching, literally playing on their heads. The packed room held its breath as the young actresses fought with each other, swore at each other or rolled half-naked about the floor. The difficult, yet brilliantly conceived performance, was witnesses by the silent faces of the audience, which were visible in the dim light.

“The actors performed with modern elements, their speech has no plot or rather, in places, a thin one, but it contains great depth and a message,” said Lýdia Vargová. “They try to be closer to people, and I think they succeeded today.” 

Lukáš Mano