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 Libeň, 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 in Divadlo pod Palmovkou. The premiere took place on 7 June 2023 in the Palmovka Synagogue, in a unique space with an irreplaceable genius loci, which ideally harmonised with the poetics and creativity of the production by the young theatre artists from Libeň. Authentic acting and personal determination to explore and then personally cope with the traumatic events caused by the Nazi regime, among other things, led them to the ability to creatively present their own generational attitude. And not only in relation to the tragic consequences of the Nazi rampage in the Protectorate, but also to the current growing tendencies and attempts to downplay the toxicity of Nazism and fascism. "The main metaphor for the Holocaust for us is the paper puppet. The more prohibitions and anti-Jewish regulations, the more a person loses his human dignity and becomes just 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 the rehearsals, the young theatre students had only stories of houses that no longer stand, stories of people who are no longer alive and the fates of people who are only remembered. And in June they staged a spectator-attracting performance called Treacherous Leeward, where it was evident that the participants of the Libeň studio had gained a deeper understanding of the thoughts of the individual characters from the Jewish community of Libeň, their everyday life, as well as the story of the creation and demise of the Jewish ghetto and the mysterious fate of the Jewish synagogue and cemetery in Prague's Libeň.
Photographer: Lukáš Jančina
Thank you to the Municipality of Prague 8 for supporting the Theatre Studio.
