What did Prague's Libeň look like before the Second World War? What do we even know about its original inhabitants? The memories of witnesses from the old Libna, their personal stories and thinking about them through the eyes of contemporaries became the starting point for the production of the Treacherous Leeward production of the Memory of Nations studio at the Divadle pod Palmovka. The premiere took place on June 7, 2023, in the synagogue in Palmovce, in a unique space, with an irreplaceable genius loci, which ideally resonated with the poetics and creativity of the production by young theater actors from Libeň. Authentic acting performances and personal determination to examine and then personally come to terms with the traumatic events caused by the Nazi regime led them, among other things, to the ability to creatively present their own generational attitude. And not only to the tragic consequences of the Nazi rampage in the Protectorate, but also to the current growing tendencies and efforts to downplay the toxicity of Nazism and fascism. “For us, the main metaphor for the Holocaust is a paper puppet. The more prohibitions and anti-Jewish regulations, the more a person loses his human dignity and becomes only a puppet and his fate is in the hands of others,” said Jitka Míčová, a popular and experienced lecturer at the Libeň studio. At the beginning of rehearsals, the young theater actors only had stories of houses that are no longer standing, stories of people who are no longer alive, and the fates of people who are only remembered. And in June, they presented the audience-attractive performance Treacherous Wind, where it was evident that the participants of the Liben studio penetrated to a deeper understanding of the thoughts of individual characters from the Liben Jewish community, into their everyday life, but also into the story of the creation and demise of the Jewish ghetto and into the mysterious fate of the Jewish synagogue and the cemetery in Prague's Libeň. 

    

Photographer: Lukáš Jančina

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