"the young actors built communal buildings, a small hotel, stables, cowsheds, barns. Each actor built his own house which then became his own property, while everyone took part in communal tasks. It was a Tolstoyan existence. It was to prove an ideal, a way of life and a way of work that would haunt the imaginations of other artists at various times. Vera Komisarjevska, the sister of the director, Theodore Komisarjevska, dreamed of such a community of artists, Copeau formed a group of actors, and, twice in the Vieuz-Columbier, took them away to live and work in the country. His successor, Michel Saint-Denis, did likewise with the Compagnie des Quinze. So did Charles Dullin. So, too, the Group Theatre in America in the 1930s, the Living Theatre, and Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theatre in the 1960s, and Peter Brook and Eugenio Barba. Vera Komisarjevska dreamed of a company of actors united by the same understanding of the art of acting. She came to the conclusion that a theatre of ideas needs interpreters who have been brought up on the ideas and methods of that particular theatre...."
-James Roose-Evans, 1970.
Yes, FoolishPeople are back in the UK after the life and perception altering experience of living and filming Strange Factories in the Czech Republic. Finishing ahead of schedule, we now have only two days of shooting to complete in the UK before the editing and post-production phase can begin. Meanwhile actors and crew alike are undergoing a process of rest, recovery and rejuvenation, greatly assisted by the healing powers of Cesneka (garlic soup) and distant memories of sharing Medovnik (honey cake) over multiple cups of coffee and jugs of Hot Ginger in Prague during our week of exploring the city's forbidden limits (and attempting to re-enter society following a period in the literal and metaphorical wilderness).
Whilst we are itching to reveal all that took place in the depths of Bohemia a level of secrecy must, at this stage, hold tight for the sake of the artistic integrity and the success of the project. However, keep an eye on this space over the coming months as we reveal choice fragments of the process so far, ranging from the beautiful to the downright brutal, traversing the spectrum of human and Otherly experience.
Most of all, we look forward to sharing the trailer with you...soon, my pretties, soon!
Photo: Lefteris Eleftheriou
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