Franz Kafka “Aphorisms” on the Stage of the Black Light Theatre Prague of Jirí Srnec

The performances of the Black Light Theatre always offer to the audience the possibility to search under the surface of what they can see, to go behind the limits of the world that can be recognised. They urge to participate intellectually, to think about the destiny of human beings. Now - when we are entering a new millennium - the ensemble of the Black Light Theatre starts dealing with the work of Franz Kafka in Prague, which is the surrealistic reality of all his books, because they think that his hidden messages are still valid, timeless and absolutely vital considering the reality where we have to live. Franz Kafka Aphorisms, a new performance of  the Black Light Theatre Prague of Jirí Srnec, is a special stage project and a landmark in the almost 45-year existence of the ensemble of black light theatre generally. To express the thoughts of Kafka, one will use entirely new concept of theatre, which goes beyond the borders of stage genres ­ dance, motion theatre, black light theatre, music and laterna magica - in a synthesis that opens a new view of Kafka and his work and returns his imagination into the contemporary world. The innovative quality of the performance is proved both by the variety of forms used and the use of a new principle of visible control of props, which has not yet been seen in black light theatre so far, in which the movement of an object is accompanied with puppeteer's dancing inspiring life in it. The non-verbal speech of the black light theatre easily understandable all around the world along with usual flexibility of stage construction will enable high mobility of the performance, which is even improved by a low number of interprets here. Unlike standard black light theatre performances for an ensemble consisting of about twenty members, a new opening will be compiled for a chosen group of seven variable artists, dancers, drama actors and invisible puppeteers, who are noticeable artistic individuals and professionals in their branch.

The project will be introduced in Prague, a city that is inseparably connected with the life and work of Kafka, in mid-June 2005. The project will be set to the theatre hall of the Municipal Library, only a few hundred meters from the natal home of the writer in Kaprova street. From June to September 2005, about 90 reruns will be introduced here. The performance is also arousing interest abroad, in particular, in Germany, Israel, France, South America, USA, Japany and Australia.
Therefore, the expected life of the performance is very long and it considerably exceeds the number of reruns that was planned.
The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the European Cultural Foundation and other cultural institutions will be asked to support the project. A part of costs will be settled by the ensemble from their own funds gained during their numerous tours.

„I know the work of Franz Kafka for fifty years. The effort to reveal the „secret“ of texts, to introduce them on the stage, to interpret the meaning of novels on the stage rather discouraged me considering the number of attempts, of which there is a great number nowadays.
In 1991, I obtained a book of Aphorisms and these short sentences, witty stenographic notations, marginalia, frequent dialogues about the existence of the world, about the meaning and purpose of life, relationship to being evoked visions and performable associations in me, which kept returning more and more often and more and more urgently and so the visual script of animated acts started slowly growing in me, in which acting dancers and objects moving as actors will perform in mutually magic partnership as it has been a rule for forty-three years.

 „Animals and many things are not objects, but people who live in animals and things“
Franz Kafka

During our journeys around world stages, we experienced precious and often joyful response of the audience when they understood our performance on the stage. I look forward that it is the case in my visualised associations of Aphorisms as well. I believe in great interest of audience because it is time to introduce Franz Kafka on the stage of black light theatre ­ a work that is a continuous challenge to variableness, contemplation about the choice and necessity, penetrating look in our lives.“