The Game of Life

The production The Game of Life was created from a dramatization of the prose work of the same name by the writer Tomáš Vaněk, with which Rotterová successfully completed her bachelor’s degree. The main character of the source material - like the author himself - embodies a person with a mental illness who fights his diagnosis through his own writing. The author’s involvement in the production process allowed the creative team to immerse themselves deeply in the theme of schizophrenia and get to know his own experiences, reality and the feelings he is exposed to every day. Tomáš Vaněk’s rare openness and engagement therefore allowed the students to confront the audience with the many different states brought on by schizophrenia.

“I wanted to thank you once more for that interpretation of The Game of Life. My enthusiasm hasn’t faded much with time. A person could just let it go and move on, wanting more and always something new, but knowing that it won’t happen again, and that you might not even go to the festival in Prague… one has to tie a proper knot in some neural fibres and not forget. In the life of an “unsuccessful writer” ;-) such pleasant experiences aren’t exactly abundant, and honestly, I really appreciate even the invitation to the bar, and I think that even successful writers struggle to experience something so simple, and yet so precious.”

• Tomáš Vaněk

Besides this, both the literary work and the stage adaptation deal with themes such as loneliness, fragility and the desire to truly live, rather than merely exist. The Game of Life follows Detective Marek, who investigates the case of Dávid Karas through the writer’s own narration, uncovering his past and gradually realizing that having everything under control is not as simple as it seems.

The directorial concept draws on the filmmaking technique of the “red herring”, which opened up the possibility of experimenting with and searching for connections between techniques used in film and in theatre.