Bambušek, Miroslav

Miroslav Bambušek (born 1975, Louny) is a playwright, and theatre and film director. He has been especially involved in projects that perceive culture as a platform for political and social reflections. He is a chairman of an association called Mezery (Gaps, 1997) that started with the theatre productions at Vodarna (Waterworks) in Louny, where festivals Klín mezi homolemi and Den pánů and performances Trať!, V oáze – ve strojku – v New Yorku have taken place. Later on, they moved to a venue called Multiprostor (Multispace, a former boiler room of the Louny town hall), where they prepared performances as a part of so-called “Balkan season” devoted to a search for causes and consequences of the civil wars at Balkan at the end of the 20^th  century. Other project and performances at Multiprostor include Selbstbezichtigung by P. Handke, Waiting for Godot by S. Beckett, Blasted by S. Kane, Ida Breznova’s entertaining shows, Cenek Noha’s entertaining shows etc.

He has written over thirty plays (e.g. Caligula, Hugo, Trať!, Heikki, Takoví jako On, Deutsches requiem, Pryč!, Zdař Bůh!, Do židů, Porta Apostolorum, Útěcha polní cesty, Zóna), two unrealized librettos (Lenin, Heracles) and film scripts (Důl Barbora, Případ Postelberg, Efekt přihlížejícího, Lucifer, Jan Hus – mše pro tři mrtvé muže).

Písek (Sand, 2002) and Porta Apostolorum (2004) were awarded second places in the Alfred Radok competition in the category of the Best Play. Česká válka (Czech War) was shortlisted for the same prize in 2011.

In the season 2003/2004 he worked as a repertoire advisor at Zapadoceske divadlo in Cheb. He has been directing in the following theatres: Cinoherni studio in Usti nad Labem, Alfred ve Dvore, Divadlo Archa, La Fabrika, Meetfactory. He was a leader and initiator of a project called Perzekuce.cz (Persecution.cz), which was going on from May 2005 to May 2006 in the industrial space of an abandoned aluminium foundry in Praguequarter Holesovice. The aim of the project was to reflect the Czechoslovak history since the end of World War 2. The project won Sazka and Divadelni noviny Award in the category of alternative theatre. At the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2008 he received an award for his screenplay to a film called Případ Posteleberg (Filmova nadace RWE Award, Barrandov Studio). In 2006 he wrote and directed a play called Stanice Titanik, which was staged in Mostar (BiH). In 2007 he finished a computer-animated film Lucifer (Devil), which was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the festival of experimental films inOlomouc. In 2008 he finished a documentary drama Efekt (Effect) for Czech TV (together with Radim Spacek) and in 2009 a film called Jan Hus – mše za tři mrtvé muže, which he directed as well.

Between 2009 and 2013 he initiated, together with Ewan McLaren, a project “Cesty energie” (plays Zdař Bůh! – Důl Michal, Ostrava; Voda – Ekotechnické muzeum, Praha; Uran – Bunkr Drnov u Slaného, Ropa – Halič).

Translated plays:

• Písek - The Sand - English
• Písek - Pjesok - Russian
• Písek - Pesok - Macedonian
• Porta Apostolorum - German
• Pryč! - Weg! - German