1914 is a title of the new production that Robert Wilson, a star of the world theatre, and his team prepared for The Estates Theatre.
After an enormous success of Čapek´s Makropulos Case, the famous director is concentrating on other pieces that strongly address us, especially considering the anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. 1914 is based on Karl Kraus’ Last Days of Mankind and Jaroslav Hašek’s Good Soldier Schweik. Soňa Červená appears in a special role of the Time.
Wilson the architect has come into his own: he has constructed a peculiar (theatre) world in which the machine kills itself and in which not even the world’s designer can claim to control anything, to hold the reins in his hands. In 1914, Wilson surprises us the most by his still being able to free himself of Wilson. To extricate himself from the straitjacket of his own work. (Hospodářské noviny)
The surprising aspect: Wilson’s aestheticism realised here on stage with lemurs with flashy make-up, eccentric costumes, (…) monochromatic, coloured walls filling the entire scene and stylized houses and interiors. This aestheticism does not create distance but burns into the minds of the audience like a nightmare. (…) The insight of time is (…): It will always become worse even when you think it is already at its worst. We learn nothing from history. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
