National Thetare Will Welcome Guests from South Bohemia with Ballet Romeo and Juliette in February

A guest performance by the South Bohemia Theatre Ballet will take place in the Estates Theatre on February 10, 2013. Ballet in three acts wit the score by Sergei Prokofiev will be presented in the choreographical version of Attila Egerházi, the artistic director of the ballet company in South Bohemia Theatre. The creator explains the meaning of the famous story for him: “The immortal value of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a story of tragic fates, primarily rests in its delving into the depths of the human soul. Love is the fundamental and essential demonstration of humanness, seeking the identity of the core of one’s self in another person. True love transcends the borders of conventions, religious traditions, and does not respect deeply rooted social mores.
Everyone is born into a community that influences him/her through its traditions, customs and collective memory. Later on, the young and immature individual gains his/her own experience, desires and ideas, and is overwhelmed by an emotion which he/she conforms to the entrenched customs – seeking consonance with another person. He/she longs to blend that which at the beginning is YOU and I, and duly falls in love. Love gives rise to an irresistible and unconditional longing to be together all the time. Only love possesses the power of a fire that blazes all the more intensively the greater the feeling. Not even the strongest of winds is able to extinguish the flame of love. In our temporal, earthly life, however, love is usually a transient emotion too. Thus, all the more valuable and inspiring are fateful, deep and infinite loves!
Romeo and Juliet’s love is eternal because their amorous flare occurs almost concurrently with the time of their death. The story’s final collision appears – the last image amplifies the timelessness of the story, as a memento of passionate love, love “till death us do part”. On stage, the story of Romeo and Juliet is always one of the most powerful and truest depictions of amorous feeling. It is the apotheosis of the human desire for and seeking of true love – in its fulfilment and immortality!”
Sets and costumes were created by two artists from the Nederland: light design and sets by Loes Schakenbos and costumes by Bregje Van Balen (former member of NDT), who both also cooperate with contemporary dance company 420PEOPLE. Source: NT