A Film and Theatre project London, United Kingdom
At this hard time, help us keep intercultural exchange alive in the UK through theatre.Poker Face is a Czech play asking topical questions
At this very complex time in the history of Great Britain, it’s particularly urgent for us to keep intercultural exchanges between European countries alive through translating cultures. LegalAliens is a London based theatre company producing contemporary European plays in English translation.
Poker Face is a Czech play about generational change and the collapse of ideals after the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s also about a single woman and her relationship with her daughter and the memory of her father.
In a comedic, at times grotesque way the play asks the central question: is the cult of money all that’s left in our Western Societies? At the same time, this very Czech story, opens a much wider debate about the legacy of the great figures of the past, of the very idea of democracy, solidarity, integration. Is it all a game? Are the only winners those who can keep a poker face and manipulate everyone else?
We have been offered to present Poker Face for six nights in October at the Kings Head Theatre in London, a Fringe venue renowned for new writing. The show will feature a brand new translation by Eva Daníčková devised during rehearsals (according to our method that sees translation as collaboration), a cast of European actors based in London and directed by Becka McFadden (a real testimony to the enormous creativity deriving from multi-culturalism), as well as projections, integrated into the live performance, featuring the Czech actor Arnošt Goldflam.
We will be travelling to Prague to shoot the scenes with Arnošt, and once again we’re delighted to be able to have such an exciting international collaboration.
We have some private funds, but we need to raise more money to help us fund the Czech shoot and all part of the cast and crew’s fees. All EU funds are soon going to dry up and more than ever we need your support to keep European theatre in the UK alive. Theatre knows no borders and despite the recent events we intend to continue to share stories from all over the continent and build bridges between cultures.