Preview: Dokola

If you missed Dokola last May - and if you didn't go the first weekend, before the buzz, and then, like many, couldn't get a ticket the next, you probably did - don't miss the local adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde this time around. If you managed to catch it last spring (and there are a few people who saw it twice), you'll be glad to know that all of the 10 original cast members are back, with just the lead dancing roles replaced.

Dokola has also adapted and added new elements such as Czech titles, making the multicultural show multilingual-accessible. Stepping into the two empty parts will be Dokola's original choreographer, Dagmar Spain, and director, Jay DeYonker.

"We feel their understanding of the play, its unique characters and the dynamic sexual relationships is unparalleled," A Broad's Way Productions publicist and member of the board of directors Gayle Roberts writes in an e-mail. "We have complete confidence our audience will appreciate our fresh and thoughtful take on the dances."

Spain, from Germany with Czech roots, recently premiered a paired production in at New York's Danspace with her company, Dance Imprints. DeYonker, well-known for his dramatic work around town, has danced all his life.

He and producer Lindsay Taylor helped lead the writing process as the multinational team of Richard Holland, from Ireland, Jonathan Lefèvre (France), Kathryn Hume-Čvančarová, an Australian, the American Gayle Roberts and Britain's Conrad Watts spent six weeks adapting Schnitzler's work. Then, the draft was given to the actors to read so as to help Taylor, DeYonker and the team edit the script to reflect the community and the characters they had created. None of the actors in the original production was a native English speaker.

"It was important to hear them read the language," Roberts writes. "It affected our edits and made our product better and more cohesive."

Taylor also co-runs A Broad's Way, which produces "original or adapted works of inventive, entertaining and thoughtful theater that reflect and comment on Prague and the people that inhabit our inspiring city."

"We are passionate about living here, and Prague has inspired us to create what we have done so far and what we look to do in the near future," Roberts writes. "So it's important that we incorporate our living experiences here into our productions. And, of course, location is key to any production: It sets the stage, so to speak. The setting is like the costume you dress a production in. Of course it's a defining aspect. We've decided to define our shows as showing different aspects of living in Prague."

Milan Gagnon can be reached at
mgagnon@praguepost.com