HaDivadlo:
The Axe

Ludvík Vaculík’s epic journey to visit his brother, a driver, leads through long detours and landscapes from his childhood which stir up persistent memories of his father’s life. The carpenter who built a house in a remote corner of Wallachia. The worker who supported a family from far-away Persia. The opinionated chairman of the National committee. The husband who would always come home in the morning. The skiers in the hills after nightfall. The quarrelsome father-in-law who had to be right. The widower who began a new life. The father with whom you had to negotiate. Kismet!

To walk through your native village wondering how much you’re still at home there. Where is that water? The ground that’s been dug over a thousand times. New blocks of apartment houses. Geese are no longer allowed in the village centre green, it’s been called a square. Some create facts, some suffer from them. You have no choice but to turn to your inner newsroom where you strive to see the world directly. How do we get firm? Is it even desirable when even our own memory is being transformed? What is being passed on to us? How do we get back to seeing clearly?

Published in 1966, the Axe became one of the most prominent Czech 20th-century novels. Vaculik’s testimony about deep social transformation in the 1950’s and personal responsibility resonates with the search of one’s place in a politically, ideologically and socially polarized society also today. Tied to the past, confused about the present, he tries to see himself, the world around him and his future more clearly.

The reunion of the director Břetislav Rychlík with the author and his friend Ludvík Vaculík, and Cyril Drozda, his long-term theatre colleague, actor as well as dramaturge in this case. The production premieres in HaDivadlo’s 50th season to reflect on his dissident roots.