(*1974)
Director, playwright
Františák is a solitaire of Czech theatre directing. Poeticism and rough brutality are wedded in his works. He likes dramas with strong heroines, a kind of ruralism and a rural balladic style.
After having graduated from JAMU, he lived a secluded life in the mountains and he returned to theatre as an art director and director of the Polárka Theatre (2005-2007) in Brno. He was an art director of the Petr Bezruč Theatre in Ostrava, where he staged the productions of Job, Bezruč?, Celebration, Kerosene Lamps. Then he moved to the National Theatre in Brno and produced plays like Král Oidipus and Sekal Has to Die. He works as a director in theatres from Ostrava to Cheb. He is a leading artistic personality of Jan Honsa Theatre Company in Karolinka. Apart from being a director, he also shoots documentaries and writes plays, which are often set in his home region of Wallachia – Karla, The Bride, Home, Grandpa and others.
He graduated from JAMU in dramatic education and directing, he is currently the artistic director of Drama at the National Theatre in Brno.
Františák’s production Bremen Freedom in Municipal Theatre Kladno received the Josef Balvín Award 2015 for the best Czech production of the original German texts on Czech stages.
“Františák directs the stage adaptation of Havlíček’s Opus magnum with his usual empathy for fatal dramas as well as assuredness of an experienced card player, who is very well aware he is holding all the aces in his manicured paws. [...] Františák’s directing style can be characterized by ritual moments – especially the scenes of funerals and weddings, which contrast at the first sight, yet they are meaningfully akin. […] Kerosene Lamps are definitely successful and a production we wish to be staged as long as possible.”
Petr KlariN Král, Theatre Newspaper
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