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Operation Romeo -
Czechoslovakia,1984

Synopsis
This creation, which brings together Slovak, Czech and French artists, was symbolically born in 2014, 30 years after 1984 and 25 years after the Fall of the Wall and the Velvet Revolution... So far, so close!

 

Michal, former director of “Czechoslovak Films”, has been downgraded and now works at the Archives. More and more often, he feels the need to isolate himself on the roof of his building, his “airport”… On this day, however, he celebrates the birthday of his wife Alena, in the company of their son Viktor, a student in medicine.

 

Behind the lightness of the party, the humor and good family relations, hides the permanent threat of State Security : Alena's father is, indeed, a dissident writer. The couple know they are being wiretapped, always watched, until the police ring their doorbell...

 

Everyone is then revealed little by little, until the masks are dropped, the characters are in apnea, on the edge of the precipice. They struggle in a closed environment, use humor so as not to sink, hide their game, gradually reveal themselves and finally reveal themselves in all their truth, as if their true faces were forever illuminated by the harsh light of a lamp. 'examination.

Photos
Informations

Production

Created in September 2014,
at the Pardubice Theater in the Czech Republic
 
The show was played  in the Center Region - Loire Valley and abroad (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
for a total of14 performances

 

Financial partners

The DRAC Centre-Val de Loire, the Regions of Centre-Val de Loire and Pardubice, the French Institute, Adami and Spedidam (SPEDIDAM is a collection and distribution company which manages the rights of performers in recording, distribution and reuse of recorded performances).

Creation residencies

The Theater of Pardubice (Czech Republic), the Studio Theater of Charenton-le-Pont, the house of Europe and the Orient in Paris and the MJC Village of Créteil.

 
With the support of

The Slovak Institute, the Czech Center of Paris, the Theater of Pardubice, the Alliance Française of Pardubice, the Spring of Europe and the Editions Infimes.

 

Show under the high patronage of the Embassies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Artistic team

A play by Viliam Klimacek, Slovak author
 

Translation:Jaromir JanecekAndClaire Vidoni, Tiny Editions

Staging:Eric Cenat

Interpretation:Jacques Bondoux, Jaromir Janecek,Thomas Silberstein, Claire Vidoni andMarc Wyseur

Scenography and costumes:Kristina Novotna

Light creation:Vincent Mongourdin

Sound creation: Christophe Sechet

 

Vidéo/Teaser du spectacle
Presse

Press extracts

(…) There lies the singular intelligence of Operation Romeo, and of its author, the contemporary Slovak Viliam Klimaek : the plot, the characters constantly thwart our expectations, avoiding what they seem to be. The father, embodied with sobriety by Marc Wyseur, a silent and dignified dissident ? The son, excellent in the guise of Thomas Silberstein, a fiery and willful boy ? The mother, tall Claire Vidoni, light and unifying ? Its three characters, who still live during the first scenes in their purgatory, will unmask themselves in their falls. semi-darkness. Way to accentuate the trouble of the Faustian pact that the men of the Party establish above this apparently uneventful family. Transfuge_Oriane Jeancourt Galignani

 

The staging and the acting of the actors marry the interior layout of the protagonists who slowly but inexorably reveals the sparks that will set fire to the hearth. (…)

Here is a piece of great sensitivity, captured with skill by the director and the actors, without ostentation, with simplicity, at the feet of our small human scale, the only one which in our opinion will topple the Tower of Babel. Theater in the wind_Evelyne Trân

 

The subject is harsh and the actors invent with talent simple characters that are lost in the communist machine and crushed by domestic and civil fascism. Everyone finds their recipe both bitter and misleading. (…) Claire Vidoni the mother is moving and Thomas Silberstein, already spotted in a rock and roll Romeo and Juliet, embodies with talent the son, the one who harbors all the hopes before giving in and renewing fascism. Whole Culture.com_David Rofé-Sarfati

Vidéo "Dans les coulisses..."
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