Blood Hygiene
Statements of murderers and victims. On the stage: metal puppets, scrap iron, barbed wire.
Written and directed by:Pavla Dombrovská and co.
Dramaturgic adviser: Kateřina Slámová Bartošová
Puppets and stage design: Luděk Vémola, Iveta Kalousková
Music: Tomáš Vtípil
Light design and screening: Tomáš Tušer
For spectators 13+ and adults
Duration: 60 minutes
O hře
About performance
Game about the value of human life inspired by testimonies of Holocaust survivors, contemporary documents, speeches of Nazi leaders, and texts from current neo-Nazi websites.
Based on the writings of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Höss, Viktor E. Frankl, Anne Frank, and contemporary neo-Nazi websites.
At the Skupova Plzeň 2016 festival, the play received an award for scenography, imaginative use, and animation of objects.
The performance is part of the project FINAL SOLUTION AND CONTEMPORARY EUROPE.
It takes place as a part of The Provoking Theater Project. Supported by Funds EHP 2014-2021.
From the program of the play:
„There are only two human races: the ‘race’ of decent people and the ‘race’ of indecent people. The fact that decent people are in the minority, and that they have always been and always will be in the minority, is something we must come to terms with. The danger only arises when some political system brings the indecent to the surface. However, no nation is immune to this. In this sense, every nation is fundamentally capable of a Holocaust.“
(Viktor E. Frankl – And Yet Say Yes to Life)
“The closed form of reproduction – that is the iron law of all the countless manifestations of the life will of nature! Every animal mates only with an animal of the same species. The titmouse goes to the titmouse, the field mouse to the field mouse, the stork to the stork.”
(A. Hitler: Mein Kampf)
“Before I leave this world, I want to leave you, my dearest, a few lines. If you ever come across this writing, I and we all won’t be here anymore…”
(from a letter sewn into her clothes by an unknown woman before she was murdered)
Technické podmínky
Technical specification
- Stage preparation time: 3 hours
- Duration of the performance: 60 minutes
- Dismantling time: 1 hour
- Darkness and silence needed
- Stage dimensions: 6x6x3 (height) meters
- Elevation for the audience or raised stage (not higher than 60cm)
- Power supply: 400V/16A
- Fire is used during the performance – cake fountain 12.5 cm (spark height 30 cm, burning time 40 seconds)
- Capacity: max. 150 spectators
- More information for organizers.
Media KIT
Advertising materials(poster, programme, photo)
Sources
www.holocaust.cz
Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf
Rudolf Höss: Commander in Auschwitz
Gilbert, G.M.: Nuremberg Diary
Anne Frank: Diary
Viktor E. Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning
SS in Action (collection of contemporary documents, proclamations, letters)
ČT24 Report on the Production “Hygiene of Blood”
Report “Students learned about the Holocaust through theater” (Prague TV, 2015)
METALLICALLY HARSH HYGIENE OF BLOOD Michal Drtina Loutkář Magazine 5/10/2014
In 2012, the Líšeň Theater implemented a composed program for schools about Roma people, and this year, the project “Final Solution and Contemporary Europe” was carried out, confronting the theme of the Holocaust with manifestations of racism and totalitarian tendencies in today’s society. Part of this program is the production “Hygiene of Blood,” which I saw in a separate performance in Babkárská Bystrice. It was a meeting that was metallically harsh and yet very fragile at certain moments.
Polished and rusty metal, which the directors use to create puppets, gives the creators ample opportunities for the realization of highly expressive visual symbolism. This enhances the emotions from the staged images of the Holocaust and dictatorial manners.
Initially, only a screen of red fabric stands on the stage, covering an old construction wheel. This gradually transforms into a dictator, the living room of a Jewish family, the crematorium of a concentration camp, or a monumental monument. All of this is complemented by a polished metal skull examining the world with an iron gaze, shiny figures of animals whose dialogue and subsequent “clicking” refer to Hitler’s text “every animal mates only with an animal of the same species.”
The creators of the production drew inspiration from authentic memories of participants and original texts of Nazi authorities, which intertwine at the end with images and texts from current neo-Nazi websites, turning it from a mere remembrance of history into a current issue that needs to be addressed.
I believe that in a time of empty puppet performances often serving only to entertain the audience, this is not only a conceptually strong project but also one that commendably uses the metaphors of the materials used.
