The Pan European Project Meeting the Odyssey Loaded with Top Dance and Physical Theatre Art Will Stop in Prague during the Summer

One boat full of artists from various corners of Europe, more than thirty theatre performances – three premieres. That is the load to be brought to the Czech Republic in July 2014 by the Theatre Odyssey, the Czech stop on the four-year voyage of the international project Meeting the Odyssey. Starting from 20 July, the festival will be occupying for ten days three attractive Prague scenes – Hybernia Theatre, Forman Brothers´ Mystery Ship and the circus arena Scara Circus to be built in Zítkovy sady next to Náplavka in Prague.  “The Theatre Odyssey is one big, inspiriting and adventures expedition through the current movement theatre scene. We found inspiration in Homer’s Odyssey, the elements of which mingle with the current European topics and stories of the people in each of the places where the boat stops,” says Šárka Pavelková from the production platform ProFitArt that organizes the project in the Czech Republic. “The Odyssey is, however, also a voyage of its own. Its aim is to unite people, discover new artistic spaces and cultural approaches. It aspires to denote what unites the individual nations and cultures in Europe, that is, apart from the rivers and water, the leitmotiv of the project.” The carefully prepared programme of the Theatre Odyssey will present both outstanding foreign ensembles and the top performers of the Czech scene. One of the peaks of the whole international programme will be the performance Waiting for the Rain by the Polish Opolski Teatr Lalki i Aktora. One of the oldest Polish puppet theatres will present a play with international cast in which actors, musicians, dancers and puppets meet on the stage. Lenka Vágnerová & Company, the group of one of our leading dancers, will participate with four performances, including one premiere. The internationally renowned theatre studio Farm in the Cave, directed by Viliam Dočolomanský, will sail in with their performance titled SCLAVI/Emigrant’s Song for which they were awarded the Alfred Radok Prize. Though the Odyssey will arrive only in three months, the tickets to the individual performances held in the Hybernia Theatre and on the Forman Brothers´ Mystery Ship can be obtained already from 10 April through the ticket-selling portals. More information can be found at www.odysea.pro and at the international web page www.meetingtheodyssey.eu. In the Czech Republic, the Odyssey is organized by the production platform ProFitArt (www.profitart.cz). The four-year project was one of the few which succeeded in the EU Culture grant programme. The summer in Prague offers many joys. This year, these will be enhanced by the boat full of artists and artistic groups of all kinds that will arrive in Výtoň in Prague on 20 July. The boat forms a part of the international programme Meeting the Odyssey that will sail during the next three summers (2014-2016) through almost the whole of Europe. More than 100 artists and artistic groups from 11 European countries will give more than 100 performances. Both current and mythological themes – inspired by Homer’s opus will be on. The Odyssey will be discovering new artistic spaces and cultural approaches through mutual cooperation between artists from various countries. In each of the towns in which the boat will drop its anchor, one of the episodes of the Odysseus’s journey will be adapted by young artists to a similar story of the given country under the lead of members of the Italian theatre Cada Die Teatro. The performances are called Instants or Performances of the Moment. One of the most attractive parts of the Prague festival jigsaw will be the choreographies of Lenka Vagnerová, who has gained success both on the national and the international scene. Her dance group will give four performances, the award-winning Riders, dealing with man’s capacity to coexist with living organisms, and La Loba, a performance built on two strong personalities – the singer Jana Vébrova and the dancer Andrea Opavská. The festival attractions will include Mah Hunt concerning a relationship between two people that won the Czech Dance Platform’s Audience Award. Vagnerova´s last project, the magical Sorcerer, that is being produced in cooperation with the award-winning German choreographer Felix Landerer and will have its premiere within the Odyssey will undoubtedly also attract much attention. A unique project will be presented by another important Czech female dancer Patricie Poráková. Her Quilombo provides a fascinating view into the world of the Argentinean tango. The other premieres include Waiting for the Rain by the Polish Opolski Teatr Lalki i Aktora, a play with an international cast, in which actors, musicians, dancers and puppets meet on the stage. The programme will be adorned by SCLAVI/Emigrant’s Song, the project of the international theatre company Farm in the Cave working in Prague that from the anthropological point of view focuses on the creation, development and research of human expression. Apart from the individual theatre pieces, the Theatre Odyssey will offer a rich accompanying programme. The visitors may look forward to concerts and workshops. The youngest will not be missed out either. The programme in the circus arena Sacra Circus in Zítkovy sady will belong mostly to children. They will be entertained there for example by the groups Sacra Circus and Squadra Sua or actors from the Minor Theatre.