Alena Mornštajnová
Hannah
Mesmerising destinies of three women and one century.
Can a single decision irreversibly change our lives and those of others? Do we have a hold on our life or are we merely helpless puppets subject to the quirks of fate? Hannah has her own notion of the issue. She bears the burden of guilt, struggling against her own shame since something in her life went terribly wrong and cannot be undone. She must live with it. But how?
At first, the story unfolds innocently: On a winter’s day of 1954, the nine-year-old Mira follows her friends to the river despite her parents’ ban. There she falls into the water from an ice floe on which she was riding. Soaked clothes reveal Mira’s disobedience and for punishment she won’t get any cream puffs at her mother’s birthday party. However trivial, these circumstances lead to major consequences, tying Mira’s life up with her eccentric aunt Hannah.
Emerging at a stirring pace from the thrilling Job-like story (which shows us that everything in life can be lost except for love and mutual understanding) are the fortunes of three generations of women: that of Mira, her aunt Hannah and Mira’s grandmother Elsa. Pain and suffering, betrayal and hatred, but also love, humanity and humour are coming alive on stage.
The story is based on true events that occurred in the Moravian city of Valašské Meziříčí. Hannah, the third book by one of Czechia’s best-selling contemporary novelists, was released by the Brno publisher Host and won the National Book of the Year award in 2017. Today, the internationally awarded novel is being translated into eleven languages.
Czech Premiere: 11th October 2019 at the Mahen Theatre
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