HaDivadlo:
Memory burn

A thirteen-year-old boy, Přerov, the noughties. An environment where everyone knows everyone else, but closeness often means loneliness and anxiety rather than support. An absent father, a silent mother, the authority of grandparents. The dawning realization that you are different in an environment that does not accept you. A small town as a collective organism, a force that shapes a person, but also a source of trauma that fuels the desire to escape. Out of fear, you disappear, to the big city, but the past does not leave you. Returning terrifies you. Your grandfather's death forces you to return to places you wanted to leave behind forever. You have no choice. Maybe you'll find that it's no big deal, that you can simply overcome your memories. Is it even possible to escape from the places that shaped you?

This adaptation of Marek Torčík's autofictional novel Rozložíš paměť (You Will Unravel Memory), winner of the 2024 Magnesia Litera award for prose, explores the theme of adolescence against a backdrop of social inequality, latent racism, and homophobia. Memory is fragile and unreliable, but some moments remain etched forever. Director Ondřej Štefaňák and author Marek Torčík share a similar life story: both grew up in small Moravian towns and both moved to Prague. The production is thus not only an intimate exploration of one memory, but also a testimony to the search for identity, the courage to tell one's own story, and the fear of returning to the places that shape and hurt us.