Faust (Faust Is Dead)

The Faustian topic transformed into a story of two men of this century – that is the content of the play by Mark Ravenhill, a young, but already world-famous English author. His plays have been performed all over the world and more or less everywhere they triggered a discussion about the state of theatre, drama and society. In them, the author searches for reality and truth of life feelings, no matter how much taboo they might be. But it is always the archetypal problem of being, famous to everybody under various guises. What is decisive is the extent which we are ourselves willing to admit.

Janoš Krist, theatre dramaturgist 

Staging Mark Ravenhilľs Faust (Faust Is Dead) by the Brno HaDivadlo can be called a move valuable in terms of the dramaturgy, risky in terms of the production and remarkable in terms of the audience. The Brno Faust, into which the director brilliantly implanted sparkles of portentous back humour, represents a report, disquieting both in terms of theatre and philosophy, about today's barrenness and rejected heroes. In spite of that it remains above all a production of actors with the precise performance by Tomáš Matonoha and Pavel Liška. Homosexuality highlighted in the vocabulary and in the situations will most probably be shocking for many spectators. However, Matonoha puts together with incredible nobleness a study of Alain, an educated, sad and sarcastic gay, who does not hesitate to verify life postulates through his own harsh experience.

The erotic accent of the play has been mastered in an excellent way also by director Pokorný. The rough sex of the heroes is not a means for arousal, but above all a reflection of unhappy world where it is born. Matonoha has an excellent partner in Pavel Liška, who is type disposed for the role of the elderly irritated child whose cruelty is the result of loneliness. (...)

Luboš Mareček, Mladá Fronta Dnes, 22/12/2000

 The edges of Pokorný's production are sufficiently sharp and, surprisingly, it does not lack humour either, although it is quite black and drastic...

Jana Machalická, Lidové noviny, 8/12/2000 

The production has won a prominent place in the survey of critics for the best theatre production of 2000 in the Czech Republic and in the A. Radok Foundation 2000 Competition it became Play of the Year.