Obyčejná šílenství - Divadelní hry 2001–2012 – Zelenka Petr (2014)

Petr Zelenka (* 1967) is not only a well-known filmmaker (Knoflíkáři, Příběhy obyčejného šílenství, Karamazovi) but also a respected theater director and playwright. Nevertheless, this collection is his first book publication of plays. Readers thus have a unique opportunity to revisit the twisted stories of Příběhy obyčejného šílenství, reflect on the contradictory fate of the Russian inventor Teremin, and also become acquainted with Zelenka's less familiar plays: a crazy comedy about theater titled Odjezdy vlaků (written based on Michael Frayn's one-act plays), the drama Očištění set in a television environment, the play Ohrožené druhy, which examines the harmfulness of marketing, and finally the tragicomedy Dabing Street, predicting the social situation after September 11, 2001. – A double winner of the Alfréd Radok Award, Zelenka grotesquely and seriously mirrors the problems of Czech society, which resonate throughout the entire post-socialist, and indeed Central European region. Zelenka's handwriting is characterized by the author's tendency to push situations to extremes, viewing them through various media and seasoning them with magical peculiarities. His plays not only entertainingly highlight any substitutes for reality but also criticize transgressions against morality. One way or another...