(*1971)
director, stage designer, translator and essayist
In his productions, Pařízek applies consistent stage minimalism with the emphasis on artistic acting. We may trace two dramaturgy lines: the first one accentuates contemporary Central European drama represented by Thomas Bernhard, Werner Schwab, George Tabori or Elfriede Jelinek; the other one relies on classic authors writing in German.
In 1997, he staged Werner Schwab’s First Ladies for the Theatre on the Balustrade. He became widely known as the director of the Comedy Theatre and the main director of the Prague Chamber Theatre he managed between 2002 and 2012. His company ranked among the most progressive one in the Czech Republic. The Prague Chamber Theatre won the Alfréd Radok Award for the best theatre three times (2007, 2009, 2011). He has also staged The World-Fixer, The Trial, Overweight, Unimportant, Shapelessness, Offending. He regularly worked in German theatres – Schauspiel in Cologne; Hamlet, The Robbers in Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg; Intrigue and Love and Danton’s Death or Götz von Berliching. In Schauspiel Hannover, he staged The Broken Jug or Mary Stuart. In 2012, he staged a modern version of Faust in Schauspielhaus Zürich. After he left Prague, he has been working for many German-speaking stages, such as Darmstadt, Cologne, Zürich, Düsseldorf, Bremen or Vienna. The critics positively acknowledged his production of The Ridiculous Darkness in Burgtheater, Vienna. In June 2015, the festival Wiener Festwochen in coproduction with the Studio Hrdinů in Prague staged The Švejk Case.
He graduated from theatre studies in Münich and studied directing at DAMU. He is now regularly associated with Volkstheater in Vienna.
Pařízek has won many awards for his productions, The Ridiculous Darkness in Burgtheater won the survey of Theater heute magazine. It was also the best performance of the 2014/2015 season in the German-speaking area and received prizes in other categories as well. In 2008, Austrian President Heinz Fischer awarded Pařízek with the Austria Silver Medal for Merits in Science and Arts.
“We would hardly find a more specific and unambiguous theatre in Prague – or in our country – than the Comedy Theatre with its dramaturgy, staging methods, specific acting as well as a uniform visual presentation, which corresponds exactly with what is happening on the stage. [...]”
Vojtěch Varyš, Divadelní noviny
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