Home is where the pain is
ND+ LAB
- Thursday Oct 13 / 20:00, Erpet Smíchov
Varvara came to Prague years ago from abroad. She fell in love with the Czech capital, and she and her boyfriend Viktor made the city their new home. In late February, the war in Ukraine disturbs their harmonious relationship. Viktor is from Ukraine, and he begins to realize that the Czech Republic no longer offers the certainties it did before.
News from the war also affects Varvara’s friend Anna, although she is busier with planning a birthday celebration. Everything has to be perfect, especially since her daughter is supposed to come with her rich husband. But Anna’s seemingly perfect life is turned upside down by unexpected news.
The characters find themselves in a tense situation that brings their real personalities to the surface and manifests their fears of the present and the future. Their originally safe home suddenly resembles a battlefield where everything is at stake – because home is the place where many people suffer the greatest injuries.
This drama with comic elements, made on the basis of interviews with real people, explores the complicated nature of family ties, feelings of safety, and the (un)certainties we feel at home and outside of home.
Authors: Jakub Sláma, Dominika Hromková, Kateřina Špalová, Eva Hnilicová et al.
Play dramaturgy and workshop lecturing: Tereza Krčálová and Romana Štorková Maliti
Directed by: Marta Veselá and Zuzana Král‘ová
Costumes: Viktorie Drobná
Lighting design: Filip ObermajerWith: Hana Lhotová, Kateřina Špalová, Patricie Urbanová, Jana Gabrielová, Dominika Hromková, Sára El Maghrabiová, Markéta Nováková, Violetta Šikina, Štěpánka Apetaurová, Eva Hnilicová, Jakub Sláma, Kristián Kašpar, Karel Eliáš, and Václav Bartůšek
The performance was made as part of the ND+ accompanying programs. Starting in March 2022, participants went through the entire process involved in creating an original theater performance, from the search for a subject to research, scriptwriting, the search for a directing and artistic approach, music composition, and rehearsing the characters on stage with actors.
Reprise performances: 20 and 21 October, Venuše ve Švehlovce
