The election surprise of the extremists! The introduction of a cogwheel totality!
The angry buzz of the worker bees is coming from the hive! Brave Hawkers are fighting the dictatorship!

One of the most talented and creative amateur theatre companies, Ztracená existence (Lost Existence), brings their play ‘Vandaska‘ to the MayDay Festival. Vandaska is a contemporary political satire in a multimedia context and Lost Existence performed this play e.g. at the Mighty Sounds festival in 2010. The play was also nominated to the nationwide competition of experimental theatre Šrámkův Písek 2011. It is regularly played in Studio Ypsilon, where the group has the status of a permanent guest company. Vandaska is a play about a hypothetical election triumph of the Workers Party and it is aiming its sharp satire not only on the Party but also on its leader Tomáš Vandas (that’s where the name of the play comes from) and his personal troubles.

Ztracená Existence proves its qualities by this inscenation once more. The audience already had a chance to witness their talent e.g. in the play Dentální rapsódie aneb Stomatologická revue (Dental Rhapsody or the Stomatology Revue) that brings the clichés like the fight between good and evil or a love story into human mouth. This play was also nominated to the best theatre performance of the year by Divadelní noviny (The Theatre Newspapers). Vandaska follows the tradition of the company that concentrates on controversial topics and puts them on stage in an expressive way, creating performances that are exactly as topsy-turvy as the world they portray.

More about the company at www.ztracenaexistence.cz.

Reviews of Vandaska:

“I have to conclude with saying that I didn’t expect Ztracená Existence to get any better than in Dentální rapsódie, but they did. Dentální rapsódie might be funnier, but Vandaska has a deeper extent, it is a ‘real play‘ transcending from amateur work to professional theatre”
- David Dostál, Tichá mysl

„The uncompromising fire of humor and irony aiming to the front line of totalitarianism depicts it in detail. The world of bees and ice skaters works with iconical stereotypes of more than just totalitarianism, it is trivial, cheap, even embarassing. These alco-intelectuals work with stupidity in a very smart way.“
- Adam Pospšil, JEViště HLEDiště DIVák

“The darkest crisis scenarios made by us are portrayed by Ztracená existence in a naturalistic way. The play surprises by dark humor, as well as the psychological analysis of the possible motivations of some people’s actions. An up-to-date play in the time when worker bees are showing their stings once more.“
- Security Policy Department, Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic

“The performance portrays a utopia of what would happen if the Workers won the election, and shows the family drama of its leader and his mother. DS SS (a new name of the party after the original Workers Party was banned) got 59 888 votes in the last election, in some municipalities the party got more than 5% proportion of the votes. The play satirizes the party and extremism as a whole.”
- Irena Hejdová, Týden magazine

“I could see that some of the people in the audience were surprised by my presence and inspected me shyly the whole time. Maybe they were searching for a weapon or a baseball bat… I have to admit there were some parts where I laughed from my heart. But they were just few.”
- Tomáš Vandas after visiting the performance

From the Worker’s Youth program: “We think art is supposed to refine human beings, not to deform it on purpose and show decadence, ugliness and decay.”