TA FANTASTIKA BLACK LIGHT THEATRE
Wherever Ta Fantastika Prague black light theatre travels, we are always asked the same question. And whether it is the Japanese, the Germans, Americans, Spanish, Italians or Indians, the question remains the same. ”Why did you choose this particular play? Why this particular theme?”
There are many ways to answer but only one captures the style of our theatre and the motives of perhaps all our black-light theatre performances: There is only a single play and a single theme.
Everything else is merely an elaboration on this theme, a different variation, concentrating on one specific aspect or another.
In the same way, we have but a single life and it is entirely up to us how many questions we would like to or are able to pose, and how many answers we can find. TA FANTASTIKA theatre is continually searching, we are always performing the same play, and it is only the questions and the answers which arise that change. Spectators glean from this what they like, what is the most interesting and resonant for the present moment.
And they are glad that they do not have to accept our unshakeable artistic truth!
To the contrary. They think and enjoy themselves, laugh, cry, and in the midst of it all wonder ”...was that a mirror? Or somebody else entirely, somebody I don't know with completely different problems? That could happen to me, maybe... or no, not at all! Never! But there's something about it that... etc.”
We have a great theatrical weapon, a great advantage over other types of theatre. The questions we ask are non-verbal. They do not require speech, or singing nor even dance or pantomime. Our stage style can only be characterised with difficulty. Is it black-light theatre? Yes, of course.
Is it Laterna Magica? Certainly. But that is by no means the end of it. Our language, which addresses spectators all over the world, is composed of many original elements used only by TA FANTASTIKA!
Why? Film and actor. Yes. In our performance ASPECTS OF ALICE.
No lasers, no computer animation, and yet reach a world of virtual reality, a world in which viewers witness amazing things before their very eyes, things one might have seen many thousands of years ago such as a fire lit without aid of match or lighter.
Black light theatre and tricks? Yes, but in combination with poetry fused with visual art which for one viewer is surreal and for another cubist. Why not?
Black light theatre and music? Of course. But music which does not illustrate, which is both a component of the scenic picture and its absolute counterpoint, if necessary.
TA FANTASTIKA Theatre, as mentioned in the introduction, has encountered one and the same question throughout the world: ”Why did you pick this particular play? Why this particular theme?” In conclusion, we would like to pose a question to all our viewers, that is, to the Japanese, Germans, Americans, French, Spaniards, and Italians, as well as to the Austrians, Israelis and Indians, to all the people who have for the past 15 years filled our performance halls.
Why did you select us in particular? Why this particular genre of theatre? Why is there always the same wonder, amazement, and subsequent cleansing catharsis that you watch our performances, stories of the madmen of the world, the Baron Münchhausens, Don Quixotes, and Gullivers, the day-dreamers who again and again beat the gates of our mind wide open?
Could it be precisely just because?
Could it be for just this reason that you would like to come with us and spend at least 2 hours of today's world in the company of Don Quixote, Baron Münchhausen, Alice in Wonderland, or Gulliver?
Don't you fill our theatre precisely so that together every night we can grab hold of our hearts, close our eyes, take a running start,... and jump! And then in that beautiful and rapturous fall from the heights to even higher, to taste the sweetest delights of human fantasy and imagination, love, feelings, humility, and wonder of it all, of what truly joins us all - theatre!
Once you take part in this great mystery, whether it be from the audience or the stage, you will never want to give it up! At least until that moment when the applause dies down, the final curtain falls, and you head back to your homes, but a little bit of TA FANTASTIKA will be with you for evermore!