A tragicomedy by a significant German playwright with a huge reputation. Mayenburg's plays are regularly performed here with great success, as they are multilayered texts that incisively tap into contemporary moods and themes with unprecedented sharpness, yet balanced into forms that are very audience-friendly. Ex is the first part of Mayenburg's loose trilogy, which has not yet been presented here. In fact, Ex will be a Czech premiere. The theater in Řeznická also plans to present the following play by Ellen Babić in the spring of next year.
“The title fits into the season called 'Talk to Me' absolutely organically. I am openly enthusiastic about this play; it builds a dense probe into a couple going through a crisis in precise dialogues, but it manages to cover everything with a blanket of apt names that are hard to uncover. With disarming yet cruel humor, Mayenburg draws you in without using any unnecessary clichés. He knows them, but he misses them, skirts around them, or simply pushes them aside to shatter into pieces. Jakub Šmíd was our first choice for directing. Both Lukáš and I agreed that he is the right one who can sensitively balance fragility and biting humor and provide a visual and symbolic overlay to a fundamentally realistic play. I am immensely pleased that I got the opportunity to act in Ex as well, and it is a joy to dive into the text and bring my personal contribution to the rehearsals,” explains the choice of title the artistic director and actor Daniel Jiří Š Hájek.
“Ex is a brilliant conversational comedy with a very bitter undertone. What I enjoy about the play is its language, rhythm, and of course the theme. How do we cope with the fact that our life is past the halfway point and is developing differently than we planned in our youth? How do we not stagnate, constantly refresh the relationship, and at the same time not hurt our partner? And are we really equal in life, as we sometimes arrogantly say?” These are, from the perspective of director Jakub Šmíd, the most fundamental themes of the production. And what is attractive about theater for a television and film director? “Theater brings immediate energy, concentrated long-term work with actors, and the possibility to create literally in 4D. At one moment, creating a vertical montage of word, sound, image, and emotion. It is great to have the opportunity to communicate with the audience through storytelling. There is something primal and ritualistic in it,” he concludes.
The play is based on the precise dialogue of a married couple, Daniel (Jiří Š Hájek) and Sibille (Lenka Zbranková). Both have relatively successful careers. They are raising two children together and live a basically problem-free life of the upper middle class, albeit without the desired peak or at least a direction towards it. However, beneath the surface of their relationship, something unpleasant is bubbling. When one evening Daniel's former girlfriend (Zuzana Zlatohlávková) calls him asking to stay over, many feelings, grievances, mutual marital animosity, unrecognizedness, and loneliness begin to surface. With the Frenchwoman who appears at the door, feelings of the past return, hopeful, nostalgic, and without obligations. But are they real, and can they even be revisited? This tragicomic drama is a superbly constructed text offering three significant acting opportunities. It can truly be a profound probe into the relationship of a married couple, summarizing the entire development of a man and woman’s cohabitation from the beginnings of romantic sparks to the rotting, decomposing bond that can only have hope if the participants engage their strength and determination. Mayenburg can build a kitchen conversational drama that elevates ordinary triviality to a philosophical image, disrupted by the catalytic character of the Frenchwoman. The intimate tragicomic drama was first presented in Stockholm at the Riksteater in 2021, and the German premiere at the Berlin Schaubühne took place in March 2025 under the author's direction.
Czech premiere: May 14, 2026
Translation: Michal Kotrouš
Direction: Jakub Šmíd
Dramaturgy: Anna Smrčková
Set design: Lenka Hollá
Cast: Zuzana Zlatohlávková, Lenka Zbranková, and Jiří Š Hájek
