Who's the most famous Czech of all time ? Dvořák, Smetana, Navratilova, Kafka, Havel? But the greatest – it surely must be Jára Cimrman. You’ve never heard of the polymath? He invented the lightbulb, yoghurt and when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he found he had three missed calls from Cimrman… He was also a renowned actor and sought to pass his wisdom along, developing his ten acting commandments, including such gems as “on stage you generally have a differen

When  the time comes to become a parent, you just know…right ? Especially the woman – the maternal instinct is reputedly strong. But what if you aren’t so sure ? Alice No , by La Petite Mort Teatro, is staged at The Museum of Alchemists at the 23rd Prague Fringe; such a lovely venue. The stage is small, no - intimate, immediately instilling the sense that the narrator is about to reveal herself to us. We soon learn that our protagonist, Alice, (Sofia Pauly) has just undergone

According to  Guinness World Records , Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. Many of his exploits were written about in The Strand magazine by his investigative companion and flat-mate Dr John Watson. Such was Holmes’ widespread public appeal, that when Arthur Conan Doyle killed the character off at Reichenbach Falls, some 20,000 subscriptions were cancelled. Indeed, the cult of Holmes seems to have, at least partially,

Staying  true to yourself and your beliefs in a complex world can be tricky. Standing up against governments, especially those which embrace totalitarianism, can be positively dangerous. Ants And Other Strong Things  is presented at the Rubin Theatre as part of Prague Fringe in its 23rd year, its black box studio setting consisting of little more than a series of drinks crates and coat stand. The backdrop screen tells us that the events unfolding are in the future, the year 2

Should we talk about the impact of the digital world on human beings ? On a macro level, there are grave concerns about the influence of the internet on democracies and the threat of cyber attacks upon institutions, industry and, Heaven help us, nuclear power plants. On-line platforms can amplify views and prejudices, gaining traction exponentially, sometimes with tragic and unforeseen consequences. But Tim Arnold’s seismic  Super Connected  instead examines the effect of dig

William Macready lived a life less ordinary, of this there is no doubt. Born towards the end of the eighteenth century, the son of an actor, he had high hopes of going to Oxford and eventually taking up a position at the bar. Many actors in current times struggle to make ends meet and it was not especially different for Macready’s father, who ended up in a debtor’s prison. This brought about a series of related events, resulting in William Macready having to leave Rugby and s

Barking Hearts Theatre’s production of  El Viaje  (The Journey) intertwines live music, singing and story-telling. It is utterly charming. But we need to contextualise first and to do so, a lightning recap of Cuban history, at least concerning the latter half of the last century. Fulgencio Batista had been elected Cuban leader, but later suspended the constitution and effectively became the head of a military dictatorship. His secret police brutally suppressed any dissenting

The philosopher Santayana observed that those who fail to heed the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them. But if time travel were to be possible, could humankind step back from calamitous, self-destructive, actions ? And crucially, even if they could, would they ? The Lantern Theatre setting is a plain black space, with what appears to be various items of junk in the background. Dryskoll (Malcolm Galea) has been sent back in time as part of an orchestrated attempt t

Every life is a series of days. We enter Rotunda Theatre’s Squeak auditorium to find no set at all : we are presented with a sparse, black space. Christopher Sainton-Clark appears on stage and immediately has the audience in his grip: there is a mortal struggle taking place and he pauses to tell us that this is the story of his death. What follows is the tale of Nathan, a young man in a small town in Ireland in 1958. There was precious little money around : Nathan’s parents b

It’s not news that planet Earth finds itself in a perilous state right now. The issue that successive Governments just will not tackle is that of climate change. They mostly seem to understand though, painfully agreeing wordings of various edicts. The aim of The Paris Agreement was to keep global temperature rises this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, scientists seem to be in agreement that this remains unlikely : IPCC scientists, in a curr

Popular culture has featured World War 2 aeroplane scenes for decades, usually bringing to mind Spitfires, Messerschmitts and Hurricanes. But  Fire Embers Ash  is the true tale of how biplanes made of flimsy wood and fabric took to the skies, playing their part in opposing and reversing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. The roots of this tale can be traced back a quarter of a century. One of the tenets of the Russian Revolution was, theoretically at

Before I can even get to describing this simply superb production, it is hugely beneficial to contextualise. The roots of World War 2 can be traced back to the end of World War 1. When the guns finally fell silent, those on the losing side ceded territory, had their armies forcibly reduced and were burdened with devastating financial reparations. But we’re not talking about Germany now, this is Bulgaria and its relatively unknown part in twentieth century European history. Bu

Corporate-speak, a form of Orwellian buzzword language only really employed within the confines of large organisations, has been around for decades. Blue-sky thinking, straw man, paradigm, mission statement, KPIs – Key Performance Indicators, if you were wondering. And if you’re still wondering, well… What manner of entity might have spawned such a culture ? We’re about to gain an insight. We enter the, sold out, Space venue to see a woman (ONE, played by Anna van Miert) surr

Die Hard  was a seminal 80’s movie, starring Bruce Willis. If you haven’t seen the film, you might well get more from  Yippee Ki Yay  if you watch it first, but a quick plot summary is as follows : It’s Christmas Eve and New York cop John McClane has set out to visit his estranged wife and children in Los Angeles. The film opens with McClane on a plane, then chauffeured to his wife’s swanky workplace, a 40-odd storey tower where the remainder of the action takes place. A grou

The year 2020 started with high hopes for many people ; maybe there was something about it being a fresh decade. But COVID-19 was coming down the road, initiating in Wuhan, China, but in this era of globalisation nothing is ever truly local. It soon became a global pandemic. Notwithstanding notable exceptions, countries chose to shut down. Most people were compelled to remain indoors, isolated from loved ones, in some cases tragically not being able to say goodbye. It is with

Bram Stoker’s infamous nineteenth century tale was not only a classic in its own right, its influence has proven pervasive for a century and a quarter since and shows no signs of relenting. Cinema, radio, television and literature. And Fringe theatre, as it turns out. The stage is set with two partially transparent screens left and right and a sort of command gantry centre downstage, its multi-use becoming evident as the show progresses. There are no other props. The quartet

Edinburgh Fringe is a smorgasbord of shows, catering for a variety of tastes and interests. Many prospective audience members might recoil from a show about Greek mythology, perhaps for fear of their threadbare knowledge being exposed. Furrowed brows may even be involved – and that would be the tragedy in this case, because  Ad Infinitum  have devised a dazzling, high octane, entertaining show that everybody can appreciate. Ad Infinitum are, of course, no strangers to the Fri

Today Germany is a modern, progressive, inclusive nation, who could teach plenty of other countries a thing or two about the value of democratic institutions. Sadly, as everyone knows, it was not always that way : Hitler’s Third Reich lasted a dozen or so of their projected thousand years in the 1930’s and 40’s, but managed in that time to inflict catastrophic misery on millions of people, the detail of which is not always widely known. This included terrorising their own cit

It is November 1963. Roger Clement is a Frenchman living in New York. He works at an advertising agency and it is fair to say that he is a stickler for routine, invariably having a coffee at a favoured outlet, taking the train to work, always being punctual. He has an errant secretary, though he tolerates this as she seems to aid with the creatives. His colleagues clearly appreciate him, though he is apparently somewhat anonymous, as they don’t appear to know his name. That i

Mairead (Janet Moran) and Mal (Andrew Bennet) are a 50-something Irish couple going to a wedding. They have been together for 2 decades or more, with Mal having very quickly identified Mairead as the type of woman he could marry. For Mairead’s part, she recognised that Mal was a decent man. They have been close friends ever since, a true partnership, having a daughter. But, scratch the surface and all is not entirely what it seems. Mal had a heart scare, from which he came cl