about the production
The young theatre Ashavers from the former Soviet Union are obsessed by the belief that theatre is a creative process for discovering man and the world, its meaning, sense and its roots.
They began their journey in Petrograd in 1988. They went through Russia, Europe, America and they even visited lsrael but they found their first permanent sphere of action in magical Prague in 1990. From stagings of the Red Zone and the White Zone that were created in the USSR and were influenced by the modern Japanese expressive dance “butó”. Derevo set out towards the “spectacular”, greater “theatricals”. Their first play of this type was Aversion to Geometry, the premiére of which was in Studio Rampa in Prague November 2nd, 1990. Since that time Derevo´s creativity can be devided into two streams. One of them is abstract staging, based on improvisation and played in the streets and open air (one of the best works of this kind was seen in the Netherlands in the summer of 1991 and in Vienna at the beginning of spring 1992). The other iare stagings which are exactly prepared and thus more traditional from the European view. The staging of A Man Kissing the Bottom of a Boat is of this kind too. The mosaic principle of freely connected pictures and scenes is used to show the inner world of Testamónió, a lonely pilgrim, whose life and death are only known from legends and conjectures.
Vladimír Hulec, Theatre Institute Prague
creators
artistic director: Anton Adasinskij