Blood, Love and Rhetoric (BLR), an English-language theater company based in Prague, is putting on a production for the fourth time this January with the hearty title “Chekhov – From Russia With Love, Blood and Rhetoric.” The show covers Russian history from the times of intelligentsia in cake-dresses to the wife-beaters and Adidas sweatpants of the ferocious nineties. The performance takes place at Divadlo Inspirace at Malá Strana in Prague, which has a small, cozy auditorium and a no-less-cozy bar with a medieval touch.

The show consists of five one-act plays: “Mustard,” “Swansong,” “Tobacco,” “Inspector-General” and “Proposal.” Not only does BLR provide the spectators with an introduction to Chekhov’s peculiar rhetoric, but the style of the theater group itself shows a lot. BLR enriches Chekhov with practical jokes, killer Russian and French accents, a red couch, epaulets and lots of vodka.

With the first play, “Mustard,” we plunge into the times of eccentric characters wearing plateresque outfits. One may or may not like the over-expressiveness on the part of the noble russian Madame (Beathe Linde) and her no less noble fellow Frenchman with the fidgety eyebrows (Mikey Blount). Yet, the servant’s (Uliana Elina) song will surely give you goosebumps.

“Swansong” balances between being an existential tragedy and a philosophizing comedy of an old alcoholic who returns to the bottle and forgets what he is celebrating. Curt Mattew’s merely setting his foot on the scaffolding sends the audience into fits of laughter. That is why, despite the monologue being lengthy and uneventful, “Swansong” succeeds at being entertaining.  There is a curious dichotomy between the comedian’s (Mattew) artistry and the prompter-character (Ronald Prokes) being a stranger to art, which magnifies the conflict between the generations.

The apogee of the show is Logan Hiller’s monologue in “Tobacco.” Stalin’s portrait, the formidable chorus and the suitcase with something green and radioactive altogether create an immaculate interpretation of Chekhov in a character of its own. “Tobacco” set the bar really high for the rest of the show, which might have been a mistake, seeing that the two plays following the intermission do not quite reach “Tobacco”‘s epic nature.

The fourth play, “Inspector-General,” flies by: it is short, runs smooth and is a good laugh. It is not particularly memorable compared to the rest of the show.

“Proposal,” on the other hand, the fifth and last part of the show, is quite a surprise. “Proposal” combines lowbrow criminals with the delicate matters of Chekhov’s play, and regardless of the seemingly dichotomy, the two blend together into a perfect combination. The last part might appear a bit lengthy, but it is worth the story. You would not be able to imagine better characters than the trio consisting of Aneta Kölblová, John Poston and Ronald Prokes. This is the point in the performance when the audience indeed gets blood, love and lots of rhetorics all at once.

Due credit must be given to Jim Hight, who’s sudden appearances in almost every scene gave each play a touch of BLR’s distinctive black humor that has made them into something more than just another Chekhov revival.

Having said that, if you still have not made up your mind about whether to go see BLR or not, there is one argument that is better than all the prattling on about dichotomies and conflicts of generations: Blood Love and Rhetoric gets the audience rolling in the aisles.

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“I believe in the yellow pages, but I don’t wanna film it.” So why do we need yet another Mamet revival? Only a month after seeing “November,” the Prague audience has a chance to catch “Speed-the-Plow,” one of the most celebrated Mamet’s plays that has been filling theatres since 1988.

Have you ever tried guns, booze, ambitions and swag soaked in satire? You get it all. The play is vigorously executed by Blood, Love and Rhetoric, the biggest Anglophone theatre in Prague. With only few derivations from the original play, Jim High, Madelyn Marcella and Logan Hillier make the spectators squeal with delight, providing them with an inside into the world of Hollywood movie makers: where people not only judge the book by its cover, but don’t go beyond reading it.

Supported by the sound of sirens, “California,” and “Candy Shop” the production benefits greatly from being connected to present-day in relations to time and place; a constant reference to a book by a local writer Louis Armand certainty emphasizes the fact that the show is from and for Prague.

Although the play relies largely on dialogue, one can hardly suffer from the lack of action.“Speed-the-Plow” is very stylish and juicy in all respects; vibrant characters excellently match their bright thought-out outfits. Yet once more, why Mamet? Well, it is after all the end of the world. Again.

David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow” found a valuable production in the hands of Logan Hillier, Jim High, and Martina Madisonova of the Prague-based theatre company Blood, Love and Rhetoric.

On the third weekend of December, David Mamet´s “Speed-the-Plow” was performed in Studio Alt@. The play describes the treacherous environment of American film business.

The end of the world was nigh (yet not enough), and the radiating lights succeeded in creating a heatful air from the very first scene. After all, we were in Hollywood. The minimalistic scene enables the actors to overshadow the spotlights, in whose focus many an “epiphany” takes place. Indeed, all the three characters – Karen with her distracting sex-appeal (Madelyn Marcella), slightly neurotic Bobby (Jim High), and egotistically loyal Charlie (Logan Hillier) – all of them shine perfectly.

The slight recontextualisations the production takes the liberty of doing endow the play with yet more content to be laughed at, such as the memorable propping and replacing the Vlak magazine, and his author, Louis Armand, with an unfilmable “deep” novel. Of course this little detail adds a humorous tinge only to those familiar with the propagator of Anglophone culture in Prague, the important part of which Blood, Love and Rhetoric is; still it is a production that keeps entertained not only the fans of this indisputably great figure of American drama today, but even the ones not so head-over-heels in love with Mamet.

Bobby Gould, a newly appointed big league producer, and Charlie Fox, his longtime associate, are going to make a film with Tom Cruise and two other celebrities, and the lives of both producers are about to change dramatically. Gould´s temporary secretary, Karen, spoils the promising-looking situation though, when she comes up with an idea to make a different movie based on a book about the end of the world.    In order to achieve her goal, she seduces Gould and makes him change his opinion. The morning after, however, Gould, with Fox´s help, realizes the true nature of Karen’s behavior and goes back to Cruise´’s movie.

Jim High puts up a steady, confident performance as he links well with Logan Hillier, who plays the self-seeking Charlie Fox. It is Hillier who makes the most of his part – he is hilariously entertaining, no matter if he laments, swears, or pulls a gun out of his pocket. Madelyn Marcella does not seem to match the brilliance of her colleagues at first, but she significantly improves later in the play. A perfect example of this is in Act 2, when she wins over the audience with her skillful and highly believable seduction techniques.

The slightly modernized “Speed-the-Plow” surely entertains and is hopefully going to be staged again next year.

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