Sf International Arts Festival Presents Czech Spitfire Company

San Francisco International Arts Festival is very proud to present the west coast debut of the Spitfire Company from the Czech Republic with their award-winning play Antidot, a deeply satirical re-imagining of Vaclav Havel's best known play, Audience. Spitfire's unique style of theatre - an explosive mix of absurd humour, physical theatre and acting with masks - is the key to this unexpected interpretation of Havel's classic.

The play takes place in a small Czech brewery in 1975, where Vanek, a struggling playwright censored by the Communist regime (a barely-veiled characterization of Vaclav Havel himself), must work to support himself. It becomes apparent that Vanek's superior has been enlisted to spy on him, a situation which unravels into a comic entanglement of espionage and deceit, with many a beer consumed.

The Spitfire Company cast female performers in the two male roles, with the characters defined by masks reminiscent of haggard politicians. Little is spoken in this physical piece, often morphing into comedy as the two performers drink beer after beer live through the show.

Immediately after its premiere in September 2013, Antiwords became an international smash hit and is currently the most staged adaptation of Havel's work in the world. The absurd magic of Antiwords has been enjoyed by audiences across three continents in cities including Washington DC, New York City, Beijing, Seoul, Busan, Milan, Oslo, Krakow, Florence, Berlin, London and Prague.

Spitfire Company
Spitfire Company is an artistic company that includes works of physical, visual and dance theatre. It is currently one of the most progressive ensambles of author theatre in the Czech Republic. The most important and characteristic aspects of the ensemble s work are: searching of an original physical language of each particular performance, emphasis on experiencing performer s state of being that generates very present emotions, dealing with a human s limitation and his/her existential situation.

Petr Boh (Director)
Petr is the artistic director and co- founder of Spitfire Company. He is also guest director of Tantehorse (company of new physical mime, dance and multimedia) and performing arts programmer of the venue Pala c Akropolis. His work with these companies has been presented in over eleven European countries, the United States and Africa. Mr. Boha c is also founder of The International Festival Zero Point, which brings the best of physical, mime, visual and multi-genres theatre forms to Prague. His performances received several prestigious awards as: Herald Angel Award and Total Theatre Award (nomination) at Edinburgh Fringe, Outstanding Performance Award at Prague Fringe, the Next Wave Festival Award for the Personality of the Year, the Award of Czech Theatre Times for the Personality of the Year at category Alternative Theater and several others.

Mir enka echov (Performer)
Mir enka is an actor, choreographer and director from the Czech Republic. She is co-founder of the Spitfire Company as well as the Tantehorse and she also works as an independent director for other companies. Initially she has started as a classical ballet dancer, later on continued her theater education as an actress. Both influences she melted together and started her own physical and dance theater style which is significant as her strongest field one woman shows. She is a Herald Angel Award recipient at Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her solo show S/He is Nancy Joe (playwright, director, performer) and The Best of Contemporary Dance 2012 recipient by Washington Post. For her solo work The Voice of Anne Frank she got The best of Performance Award by Prague Fringe, The Best of Fringe in Amsterdam and the Best of Overseas Production in the National Arts Festival in SA.

Jind i ka K iv nkov (Performer)
is an actress, dancer, choreographer, mime and author with strong interest in the development of contemporary theater performances. She finished her studies at Dance Conservatory Duncan Center in Prague and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, with M.A. degree. Since 2002 she started her professional career as an actress and author. In 2008 she became one of the founding member of Spitfire Company, company of physical theater, where she performs until now. She s co-founder of Kolonie o.s., theater company constantly working in Praque. She was awarded as the Talent of the Year (2010) at the Next Wave festival in Czech Republic.