By Michaela Gomolová

For the Post

If you're interested in theater but weak on Czech-language skills, Teatr Novogo Fronta's (TNF) annual spring program offers a great opportunity to see an award-winning contemporary troupe in action. The two works TNF will be performing, along with a street happening, are primarily physical theater, so no language skills are necessary.

The street happening is the conclusion of a traditional workshop held for young performers. This year the troupe invited Oleg Zhukovskiy, a physical performer with the companies Derevo and Formalny Teatr in St. Petersburg, to conduct a five-day workshop for 15 young actors from the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and the United States.

Irina Andreeva, an actress and one of the heads of TNF, will do two performances of a new solo piece, Dybbuk. The second show, Petrouchka, is a reprise of a well-received piece TNF did four years ago.

"Petrouchka is juvenile in that it tells a story about a puppet who comes to life," says Aleš Janák, an actor and director of TNF. "But it's also a very adult piece because its theme is a recap of life at the moment of death. We haven't played it for a long time, and we've missed it."

The piece weaves together two narrative lines: One is the story of a dying poet, Petr Bogdanov, who goes back to his childhood memories and rediscovers his favorite toy, the puppet Petrouchka; the other is drawn from the Russian burlesque of the same title by Alexander Benois, which was the source material for the Stravinsky ballet.

The new piece, Dybbuk, is drawn from East European Jewish folklore. It follows the spirit of a dead person who for a limited period occupies a living woman's body, creating a new personality for itself. There are several different versions of the legend. Andreeva, who wrote the script and developed the scenography, considers as most essential the idea that Dybbuk portrays a disquieted mind that turns things wrong-side-out.

"It's a foreboding, the reverse side of everything, which doesn't let us sleep or live quietly," she says, adding that the piece doesn't follow a neat narrative line. "It's a flow of associations, much more personal."

A solo performance is an important ritual for Andreeva. "It's a huge responsibility for me, but I love it," she says. "It's so intense, and gives me a chance to feel the essence of life more deeply. Each time I play a solo, I know the chance to perform in that moment won't be repeated."