National Theatre

This summer will be colourful and brimming with culture. The theatre scene will not be lagging behind the many concerts and music festivals offering wild entertainment. Visitors to large cities around the Czech Republic will have several opportunities to make the mild summer evenings more pleasant by taking in entertaining and serious plays performed by Czech and foreign companies.

To traditional theatres in search of tradition

The season at the National Theatre this year is without a doubt unique. This is to say that precisely 130 years have passed since the first opening of the building of the National Theatre in 1881. The theatre will be celebrating with a varied programme on all of its stages. Five plays will premiere this year, of which we must at least mention Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the classic work by A. P. Chekhov, The Seagull, which will be performed in The Estates Theatre. The famous Cinderella is an eagerly anticipated ballet premiere, this time the charming version by J. Ch. Maillot. Opera will also be prominent, with performances for example of Wagner’s Parsifal, The Nightingale by Igor Stravinsky and Ariadna by Bohuslav Martinů.

The National Theatre in Brno will have a no-less-interesting programme. The audience can for example look forward to Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well or Moliére’s The Schemings of Scapin. A new ballet premiere of Dangerous Liaisons will be performed here, based on the very successful novel by the French writer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Opera lovers will be able to look forward to The Marriage of Figaro or Puccini’s Turandot.

In the open air in search of classics and improvisation

As is now the tradition, the Summer Shakespeare Festival will also be taking place from June to August this year in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Audiences will be able to enjoy classic works such as The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV or Romeo and Juliet in the open air in the beautiful surroundings of Prague Castle, in the courtyard of the ancient Špilberk Castle and in the arena theatre at Silesian-Ostrava Castle.

One of the largest theatre events, which only comes around every four years, will also be taking place this year – the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Prague will become a centre for world theatre from 16 to 26 June. Theatre artists, designers and architects from more than 70 countries will be presenting their work to the general public here. The main venues will be the Trade Fair Palace and the piazzetta of the National Theatre.

We must not forget the no-less-important jubilee tenth year of the Fringe Festival, which will be held in Prague at the end of May and beginning of June. Over the ten years of its existence, this theatre festival has found a wide Czech and foreign audience, which returns to the event every year to enjoy performances by professional and amateur theatre companies from many different countries in theatre auditoriums and cafes.

If your travels lead you to the beautiful historical city of Český Krumlov, take in a play, opera or ballet at the famous revolving theatre.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of interesting theatre opportunities. Several small theatres offer engaging and interesting shows, so if you are tired of wandering around the red-hot backstreets of the city, consider a visit to one of them.

Prague, July 2010     Would you like to experience a unique moment? Imagine you are in a movie side by side with Hollywood stars. In the Czech Republic, you can visit places where the celebrated Bond movie Casino Royale and the Tom Cruise feature Mission: Impossible were shot. If you prefer to a good scare, take a walk through Prague following the footsteps of such horror movies as Hannibal Rising, The Omen and Blade II.

You may be surprised at how many well-known films have been shot in the Czech Republic. In some, the Czech capital substitutes for more famous and more expensive cities, such as Paris or London. In other cases, filmmakers have taken interesting locations and brought them to life unexpectedly using computer animation. There also are more and more features depicting Prague as well as other cities just the way they are, letting their age-old charm and mystery speak for themselves. In the following paragraphs is presented a sampling of the most famous of such movies.

In the footsteps of Daniel Craig, Sean Connery and Tom Cruise

The James Bond action-adventure movie Casino Royale was shot in 2006 in the most famous Czech spa town – Karlovy Vary. Agent 007 encountered both friends and foes at the Mill Colonnade, in Císařské lázně and Grandhotel Pupp before moving on to Prague. There, he began unravelling the threads of conspiracy, namely at Strahov Monastery, the National Museum, Prague Ruzyně Airport, Podbaba city district, the Vítkov Memorial, the Danube House on Rohan Island and the Main Train Station. The agent with a license to kill was also called into action in Planá near Mariánské lázně, at Loket Castle and on the town square of Loket. It was here that the Bond actor Daniel Craig spent a night in Hotel Goethe in room no. 7. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in which Sean Connery plays the role of adventurer Allan Quartermain, flaunted a similar action spirit. It was shot near Rudolfinum, Strahov Monastery and at Olšany Cemetery. Due to the floods in 2002, Connery also decided to stage the film’s premiere in Prague in 2003, which was accompanied by a financial collection for the flood-affected areas.

We also find ourselves in the company of stars when we set in the footsteps of Bad Company, in which Anthony Hopkins played retired CIA agent Gaylord Oakes. This 2002 film features scenes at Prague Castle, including the castle guards, at Hradčany Square, on the streets Thunovská and Nerudova, on Charles Bridge, Střelecký Island, the footbridge Novotného lávka and by the National Theatre. To name all secret agent movies filmed in the Czech Republic is indeed an impossible mission, so we will mention just one more: the famous Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise. This movie was the first of a series of successful action films and was also shot in the Czech Republic in 1996, mainly in Prague. Cruise’s adventures take him around the National Museum, Charles Bridge, Kampa island, the Old Town Square, Železná street, Hotel Evropa and the Municipal House.

Horror and imagination have no limits

With its mysterious atmosphere, Prague is an attractive place for shooting horror films. In the story of Hannibal Lecter’s birth (Hannibal Rising, 2007), the young Hanibal takes us for a walk around the capital through places that predestined his cannibalistic future. During these walks, the actor Gaspard Ulliel visited the city district Holešovice, the Rudolfinum, Adria Palace, as well as the streets Pařížská, Loretánská and U Obecního dvora. Another film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, was made in the Czech Republic in 2007 under the direction of Andrew Adamson, who is, among other films, best known for Shrek (2001) and Batman Forever (1995). In Prague, the prince – played by Ben Barnese – visited the Rudolfinum and the Museum of Decorative Arts.

The crew of the horror thriller The Omen (2006) was present in many places in Prague. For example, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow and David Thewlis visited the Štefánik Observatory, Strahov Monastery, Charles Bridge, Střelecký Island, the National Theatre, the National Museum, Hvězda Summer Pavillion, Troja Castle, the Prague Exhibition Grounds, the Danube House on Rohan Island, Vinohrady hospital, Náměstí Míru, the Congress Centre at Vyšehrad and Kampa island. Besides frightful exteriors, the Czech Republic is also full of hidden corners that are full of fantasy – though even these places may give the audience the chills. The Brothers Grimm was filmed in the Czech Republic in 2005 by director Terry Gilliam. It tells the tale of two brothers who travelled the whole of Germany to collect their stories. They compiled those stories into their first book, which differs from Czech and American stories particularly in its brutality. The movie features scenes from Prague, Křivoklát and Kutná hora. You also can soak up this mystical atmosphere thanks to the art of director Guillermo del Toro, who chose to shoot some frightening scenes on Prague’s Charles Bridge in 2002. Here, Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson strolled along one of the world’s most amazing bridges in Blade II.

Historical corners just call for being made immortal

In 2001, the mystery-horror film From Hell about Great Britain’s best-known murderer, Jack the Ripper, used scenery from Prague. Johny Depp, as police inspector Fred Abberline, revealed strange connections in Strahov, at the National Museum and in Apolinářská street. The Czech Republic is not, however, created for horror stories only. In 2005, the director Roman Polanski also chose the local scenery for his film Oliver Twist, based on the celebrated novel by Charles Dickens. Most of the time, Barney Clark, or Oliver, found himself in Barrandov Studios, around Beroun and in Žatec. We also must not forget the historical film directed by Czech native Miloš Forman, Amadeus, which we can say, without exaggeration, is a truly world-famous film. The Oscar-winning movie was shot in 1984 in the surrounding area of the South Moravian Baroque castle Kroměříž as well as in Prague. In this movie, you can see the Dominican church of St. Jiljí on Husova street, the Hradčany and Maltese squares, and Nerudova street.

It is therefore not surprising that foreign film producers choose to shoot in the Czech Republic. After all, it is full of cities with a unique atmosphere, diverse nature and, moreover, experienced professional filmmakers and actors.

More information about movies filmed in the Czech Republic is available at  www.filmcommission.cz.