Confession of a Jailor

Technical specifications and requirements

• Setup time: 3,5 hours (less time in agreement with the theater)
• Duration:: 70 min
• Disassembly: 1 hour
• Darkness needed
• Stage dimensions 6 width x 6 depth x 3 hight m
• Audience risers or stage
• Electricity 400V/16A
• Max audience limit: 150

About performance

Each of the characters in the play Confessions of a Jailor was inspired by a particular person. We dedicate the play to these hidden authors – people who lived, suffered, resisted and died in communist camps during the show political trials culminating in the 1950s.

The production was based on the then documents, memories and destinies. The plot of the play is inspired in particular by the fate of Mons. Jan Podveský, who was sentenced in connection with so called Babice trials, whose story was recorded by Jaroslav Sojka in the book „Příteli, tenkrát jsem věřil, dnes mám vše ověřené“(“My friend, I believed you then, today I have had  everything verified”). The book also captures Jan Podveský´s memory of Maria Rezková, who, in response to the regime´s malice, offered herself as an atoning sacrifice and died tragically at the age of twenty-five in the early 1950s.

A detailed insight into the practices of the investigative bodies was provided by shortly imprisoned State Security investigator Bohumil Doubek in an extensive statement which he wrote as a part of his own defense.

We have not dealt yet with a Stalinist-type criminal regime, whose most monstrous manifestations included judicial murders controlled behind the scene by Soviet advisors. The perpetrators of crimes were not usually identified, and their actions were not punished accordingly. Today we are witnessing the direct influence of former communists and State Security agents on the state management. Totalitarianism is being downplayed. It is much more urgent to emphasize that we have not forgotten it. We perceive the play Confessions of a Jailor as our clearance with the past and a show of respect to those who speak out by the means of written testimonies or in the memories of their loved ones and fellow prisoners, as well as those nameless, referring to us mementos of love and horror engraved in the plaster of prison cells.

The play is a part of the project PROVOKUJÍCÍ DIVADLO. Supported by Funds EHP 2014-2021.