The Czech circus troupe offering non-stop performances to protest Covid rules

Prague, Mar 4 (efe-epa).- A Czech circus group is taking a stand against the country’s Covid-19 restrictions by staging an uninterrupted, 24-hour program of solo performances.

Cirk La Putyka, an avant-garde theater troupe, opened The Isolated Artist at the beginning of the month. It is due to run for three weeks.

Due to Covid restrictions in the central European nation, there will be no live audience at the show, which instead is being broadcast directly from the group’s art space, housed in a former slaughterhouse in a Prague market, via social media.

Performers can communicate with viewers over the phone.

“The problem with text messages is that they arrive a few seconds apart, so communication is not fluid,” says Adam Joura, one of The Isolated Artist performers.

Joura acknowledges that the experience is exhausting, but also sees it as an opportunity.

“Experiencing the beauty of liberation and showing oneself how one feels inside, is something that I thought might be interesting,” he explains.

However, “the final two or three hours are very tough” with the “feeling that you can’t offer anything to the audience,” Joura adds.

La Putyka director Vit Neznal stresses that “it is not a reality show because it is continuously linked to the artistic world of the theatre and the questions of why I act and for how long I can do it.”

It is about tapping into the “intimacy of people, their personality, how creation works and what drives the performer,” according to Neznal.