EXILE

TRANSLATION Valter Feldstein
DRAMATISATION Ondřej Novotný
DIRECTION Kamila Polívková
DRAMATURGY Ondřej Novotný, Lenka Havlíková
MUSIC Ivan Acher
SCENIC DESIGN AND COSTUMES Jana Hauskrechtová
SCENIC DESIGN AND COSTUMES ASSISTANT Magdaléna Vrábová
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Marek Linhart
POSTER Terezie Chlíbcová
PHOTO Patrik Borecký
STARRING Antonie Rašilovová, Lucie Roznětínská, Marie Švestková, Jan Bárta, Jan Grundman, Vojtěch Hrabák, Hynek Chmelař, Ondřej Jiráček, Václav Marhold, Matěj Šíma

THE PERFORMANCE IS 85 MINUTES LONG.
PREMIERE 21. 4. 2023

“I have nothing, nothing, nothing!”

The last part of the Waiting Room Trilogy, written by Lion Feuchtwanger, takes place in 1935 Paris. Within this setting, the diverse members of the German emigrant community engage in discussions on politics, navigate bureaucratic hurdles for permissions, publish anti-Nazi articles, and often find themselves embroiled in trivial arguments. The composer Sepp Trautwein channels his creative energy into journalism to free his colleague from Nazi captivity, hoping to gain support from the international community. There is no time for music. Due to countless mundane duties, Anna Trautwein’s life is breaking apart; she doesn’t have the strength to determine ‘whether Sepp truly invented this transition to A-flat major or whether he copied it from Mahler.’ There is no time for music. For some reason, their son Hans learns Russian and doesn’t understand why anyone wastes their time with music. The characters are trapped in a stopgap-like situation. All they can do is fight for high ideals or basic human dignity, for their right to work and have a home. Yet, all these efforts seem hopeless compared to the monstrous, powerful dictatorship, the bureaucratic apparatus of the host country, and the life exhaustion that affects all the characters. And as a result, the living conditions kill love.

The Waiting Room is the name of the whole trilogy by Lion Feuchtwanger, but also the name of the new symphony composed by Sepp Trautwein. The Waiting Room is swarming with people; it’s full of the hustle and bustle, and there are echoes of intimate dialogues of individuals as well as the speeches of politicians. Therefore, the symphony captures the sounds of both the private and the public sphere, smoothly transitioning between the two. It captures the sounds of the diverted, missed, or delayed trains and the voices of people who wait in the railway stations with their huge and heavy luggage, lank hair, and expired documents. The voices of people who hope to eventually catch the right train that will bring them to a safe place.

The Waiting Room Trilogy project began in October 2021 when the performance Success premiered in the Theatre X10. The second part called The Oppermanns was mounted in April 2022. By this ambitious project, the Theatre X10 proves that it is possible to create great drama with a distinctive concept and interpretation and strong social subtext within the independent theatre sector.

The performance was co-produced by the National Theatre Brno as part of the Theatre World Brno Festival.