About the performance
Děti U: FRAGMENTS follow the performative walk Děti U and act as its afterimages, memories, and resonances. At Palác Akropolis, the audience experiences care for life, dying, and death through various echoes and from different perspectives; by fusing their own personal story with captured fragments, each spectator ultimately creates their own overall experience.
On a multidisciplinary journey through Palác Akropolis—via a performative lecture, audio, video, (participatory) collective reading, dance, and singing—the landscape traversed by a seriously ill child, their parents, family, friends, and acquaintances is illuminated. Within a two-hour timeframe, the audience has the opportunity to experience the supportive network that palliative care provides, from different perspectives—from that of an observing witness, a parent, and finally the child themself. Děti U – FRAGMENTS open up an intimate space at each stop, offering insight into life stories that celebrate life and the hope for a good life in close proximity to death.
The performance is in Czech and is suitable for adults and young people aged 15 and over.
Project curators: Markéta Vacovská, Miřenka Čechová, Kristýna Boháčová
Performers and artists:
- Markéta Cukrová – opera and concert singer, internationally active as a soloist with major opera houses as well as in original independent projects
- Alice Koubová – philosopher with an interest in performative philosophy, also Vice-Dean of DAMU
- Linda Dušková – director and dramaturg, lecturer at DAMU
- Ran Jiao – director, performer, interdisciplinary artist, graduate of DAMU
- Andrea Opavská – dancer and performer, lecturer at the Department of Dance, HAMU
- Kent Sjöström – educator and artist working in physical theatre and performance
- Aleš Čermák & Jindřiška Křivánková – creative duo focusing on research into embodied, multisensory forms of perception leading toward performativity
- Roman Zotov-Mikshin – dancer, choreographer, and educator, co-founder of the artistic group Ferst Dadler
- Petr Boháč – Artistic Director of the theatre company Spitfire Company, Director of Palác Akropolis
- Mara Ingea – scenographer, visual artist, and director, graduate of DAMU
Expert and research team:
- Mahulena Exnerová – Chair of the Paediatric Palliative Care Section of ČSPM ČLS JEP, Head Physician of the Paediatric Department and PICU at Hořovice Hospital
- Klára Berková – neonatologist and founding member of the support and palliative care team, Institute for the Care of Mother and Child in Podolí
- Lenka Kohoutková – Head of the Centre for Accompaniment, support and palliative care team for children, University Hospital Hradec Králové
- Kateřina Barčíková – paediatrician at the Paediatric Resuscitation Department and founding physician of the paediatric support and palliative care team, Thomayer Hospital; external paediatrician at the mobile hospice Cesta domů; Vítězslav Vurst – hospital chaplain in the support and palliative care team at University Hospital Olomouc and the mobile hospice Nejste sami
- Zdenka Volavá – Director of the organisation Dlouhá cesta, coach
- Martina Hůlková, Lenka Blažejová, Tibor Abel, Kateřina Procházková, Magdaléna Fiala – bereaved parents
- Sodja Lotker – dramaturg, lecturer at DAMU
Premiere:
18. 5. 2025
- Palác Akropolis
Part of project:
Děti U
