BURIAN

Tomáš Dianiška

Cast: 2 men, 4 women

An original play, in which the author turns to Vlasta Burian, one of the most famous natives of Liberec. He follows his life with a distinctive poetics combining humour and chilling dramatic situations. The life of “the king of comedians” was full of great twists. He experienced an abrupt rise and huge popularity that was followed by falling to the very bottom and he spent the rest of his life in unworthy conditions. When the Germans closed all Czech theatres on September 1, 1944 Burian lost from one day to another his beloved audience but it became even worse soon. After the war he was charged with collaboration, knocked out from the acting community, forced to move out of his house and ended up in jail. Aging and tired Burian returned to acting after a six-year break but he has never been the same comedian full of energy…

The play was shortlisted for the prize for The best first staged Czech play of the year 2021 at the Theatre Critics’ Awards.

The play is available in the Czech original.