Maškaráda čili Fantom Opery

“Maskerade" isn’t one of Pratchett’s best works. Even so, it’s good that the Theatre in Dlouhá Street chose to perform it. Unlike a theatre play Wyrd Sisters, this is more about production design - it’s more lavish and audience friendly. The problem is occasional uncalled for slipping into cabaret and cheap jokes that just don’t suit an adaptation of a book overflowing with dry British humor. I don’t want to give the impression that this is all just cheap. There are just a couple of moments where it gets like that, but they are not based on anything that appears in the book. And again it turns out that despite the unarguable talents of the Dlouhá Theatre ensemble, Vondráček and Táborský are on a different planet in terms of acting. What actually makes me happy, on the other hand, is the marvelous parodic background music by Jan Vondráček and the second half of the performance, which is considerably better. Because then the overly episodic storytelling and frequent change of locations eventually blend into a powerful unit (this is even more noticeable in the theatre - a lot of it was cut for the TV recording). (24/12/2009)