Cirk La Putyka decided to combine the world of Franz Kafka’s novels and short stories with a new circus. French director Daniel Gulko prepared a production entitled K with him, which premiered this week at the Jatka 78 theater in Prague and is running there until November 19.
In the 1990s, director Gulko studied in Prague with Ctibor Turba, a pioneer of the new circus in Bohemia. The Frenchman has long collaborated with La Putyka, visitors to the Letní Letná festival may know his projects with the Cahin-Caha ensemble. He involved ten actors, acrobats and musicians in a story dedicated to Kafka.
K’s production strikes a balance between absurdity and humor. It does not lack circus disciplines such as aerial and ground acrobatics, juggling, Persian poles, elements of illusion or animal masks and flying pianos. Everything is complemented by aesthetic elements of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the author was still alive.
“I always wanted to treat Kafka in a certain way. I think we have a critical and at the same time crazy view of society. So I wanted to combine laughter with black humor, which I share with many Czech artists,” said the director. .
It does not attempt a mere theatrical representation of the author’s work. He tries to transfer it to the present, for which he uses images or relationships from Kafka’s work. He gave the production the subtitle “hallucinatory comic journey” to emphasize the absurdity and humor in the author’s work or the “altered nature of reality,” as he put it.
“Kafka is absurd, life is absurd. But laughter helps overcome absurdity. Because if you don’t laugh, you’re finished. Because life is crazy. If you can see it and laugh at human absurdity, you will survive. We want to be happy, to be loved. We want feel the pleasure,” added Gulko.
Director, choreographer, clown and artistic director of the Cahin-Caha troupe was born in the US and has been involved in experimental and street theater in Quebec, Canada since the 1980s.
In 1990, he moved to Europe, where he began playing and teaching. At that time he was also studying in Prague. He then settled in France, where he founded the Pocheros circus group and later Cahin-Caha. With him, he created productions such as Chiencru, Grimm’s Imprudent Cabaret, and Bed Trip. Since 2021, he has been artistic director of Stockholm Circus High School.
Video: Trailer from the production K
Production K is on the Jatek 78 program until November 19. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: La Putyka Circus
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