Karl Ove Knausgård: My Struggle 1

“Feelings are like water, they always adapt to their surroundings. Not even the worst grief leaves traces; when it feels so overwhelming and lasts for such a long time, it is not because the feelings have set, they can’t do that, they stand still, the way water in a forest merely stands still.”

The Norwegian author has, deservedly, been compared to Marcel Proust, with his six-volume series of autobiographical novels. His version of “in search of lost times” was written as an extensive literary series, a literary reality show, in which he attempts to ensure that not a single of his emotions goes unnamed.  Everything must be said! How much is permissible in literature – and at what cost?  In this context, then, what is theater allowed to do with it? 

This adaptation takes on the first volume in the series - Death in the family. 

Two brothers travel to their recently deceased father’s final home to organize his funeral. Under these circumstances, a chain of considerations, memories, thoughts, and micro-dramas play out – ineffective musings, yet so painful that we often tend to hide them from ourselves. Could expressing them be purifying? Or at least serve as proof that on some level one can hold one's life in one's own hands for a moment? I speak, therefore I am. 

The monumentality calls up chaos. The main character’s world seems to be uncontrollably gaining momentum. The adaptation does not have the goal of dramatizing Knausgard’s complex and grandiose work as a theatrical play. Rather it leans into the author’s specific narrative flow, utilizing tools of narrative theater and a format of mixed reality performance, an experience based on perception of authentic reality vs virtual (mediated) and public vs private. 

The staging mirrors the book My Struggle 1 – A Death in the Family in that it is divided into two parts. Before the performance, viewers will receive a video to watch on their devices or to view at MeetFactory one hour before the performance. The second part begins at 8:00 PM in the theater at MeetFactory.

Translation: Klára Winklerová
Screenplay: Petra Tejnorová, Matěj Samec
Director: Petra Tejnorová
Dramaturgy: Matěj Samec
Set Design: Richard Loskot 
Costumes: Adriana Černá
Video: Dominik Žižka
Sound: Tomáš Novotný
Production: Magda Juránková

Featuring: Saša Rašilov, Václav Rašilov

Based on the book Karl Ove Knausgard: My Struggle, copyright Forlaget Oktober as, Oslo 2009. 
 

Premiere: 12. 9. 2020

Tickets at www.meetfactory.cz 
300 CZK
200 CZK for students and citizens with permanent residency at Prague 5 

Do you want to present the theatre to somebody? All year round we offer you the option to turn your ticket into a voucher for theatre shows. 
 
Reservation at  rezervace.divadlo@meetfactory.cz.

MeetFactory is supported in 2020 by a grant from the City of Prague amounting to 10.000.000 CZK.