Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time
“He could not live with himself. It was just a phrase, but an exact one. Under the pressure of Power, the self cracks and splits. The public coward lives with the private hero. Or vice versa. But that was too simple: the idea of a man split into two by a dividing axe.”
A literary adaptation of a fictitious biography of Dmitri Shostakovich who spent almost all his life in Soviet Russia. He was persecuted during Stalin’s regime because his formalist music did not meet the state propaganda requirements. After exposure to Stalin’s cult of personality, he was pushed to cooperate with the state power.
What are the options of a person fundamentally believing in their talent but facing inhuman and morally corrupted conditions of their time if they want to survive, create, and also save their face, at least before themselves? What is the meaning of creating art in a society where the truth cannot be said out loud? How much do they struggle against their own conscience, and could this struggle be ever won?
These are the questions that cross our minds not only when we study the life and work of the world-famous composer, but also in relation to ourselves.
Director: Viktorie Vášová
Dramaturgy: Matěj Samec
Scene: Anna Gumboldt
Music: Jakub Rataj
Light design: Zewll
Production: Magda Juránková
Cast: Tomáš Janypka, Anna Datiashvili, Matěj Šumbera
Life music: Jakub Rataj, Štěpán Drtina (violoncello)
Tickets:
300 CZK
200 CZK Prague 5 Residents, Students
English subtitles
The length of the performance is 60 minutes without a break.
