Protesters have tried to prevent the actors from performing the play but were taken away by the police.
A group of 30 protesters burst on the stage of a Czech theatre in an effort to prevent actors from Slovenia’s Mladinsko Gledališće theatre from performing a play directed by Croatian director Oliver Frljić “Our Violence, Your Violence”. The protesters had to be removed from the theatre by the police, reports Index.hr on May 27, 2018.
Protesters from an obscure local initiative “Decent People”, which the Czech police describe as extremists, have acquired tickets for the sold-out performance in the “Husa na Probazku” theatre in Brno, waited for about ten minutes and then burst onto the stage and positioned themselves between the actors and the audience with the aim of preventing the performance.
The leader of the protesters Zdenek Pernjica told the Czech media that the play “looked more like pornography than theatre.” “We threw the theatre tickets on them. We wanted to endure the play and see what it was all about. But after the first ten minutes, it became a chaos of perversion, so we went out to the stage.”
The audience met the protesters with disapproval and started chanting “Decent people, go home!” Several audience members came to the stage to demonstrate support for the actors.
After twenty minutes, at the invitation of the organizers, the police intervened and ordered the protesters to leave the stage and took them out of the theatre building.
The performance was interrupted for about one hour and then resumed, but a few “Decents” remained in the audience and started loudly praying, whistling and shouting “Do not insult Jesus!” Fifteen of them were taken out of the theatre by security guards.
Frljić’s plays used to be performed in the Czech Republic without any problems, including even the controversial “Excommunication”, performed by a Warsaw theatre, which caused bitter and violent protests in conservative Catholic Poland. However, the announcement of the performance of "Our Violence, Your Violence" at the Brno Festival in the Czech Republic caused upheaval, especially after the media published reports that in the play Jesus rapes a Muslim woman.
The Czech Catholic Church and some local politicians criticised the play, while activist Jan Rozek collected 7,000 signatures for a petition to ban it. Several criminal reports were even filed with the police, claiming that the play allegedly exposed the Czech Republic to possible terrorist attacks. One of the local courts intervened and rejected a request to temporarily prevent the Slovenian actors from performing the Croatian director’s play.
Yesterday evening, “Decent People” and Rozek, as well as the Czech extreme right, organized minor protests in Brno, where a total of 200 people gathered and tried to prevent the audience from entering the theatre.
Interestingly, similar protest happened last year in Split in Croatia, also due to the Frljić’s play.
Translated from Index.hr.
