I, the walking dirt, I who is everything and nothing.
About the theatrical play called Invisible I Hannah.
Written by: Ladislava Chateau
Category: Culture
Published on: 14.11.2021
The end of the year is approaching and with it various polls of successful book titles,
theatrical plays and other forms of art. Invisible I.
Hannah,
with Hana Frejková in the main role, represents one of the best pieces we could see on the Prague theatre
scene. This autumn the theatrical festival The Next
Wave,
has named Hana Frejková as the Personality of the year 2020. The play Invisible
I. Hannah, directed by Miřenka Čechová, was premiered last year, but
because of the pandemic, it had a hit ‘second premiere‘ this year in Akropolis theatre. Despite
another wave of the pandemic, which is having a negative effect on the world of the arts, it is still
successfully attracting the audience in a variety of other theatres too.
Hana Frejková, an actress, a singer, and the author of the autobiography
Strange Roots (Divoké kořeny), has chosen a very difficult task – to take her own life onto
the stage, to narrate her own past. From her childhood to her adulthood. To face her own confession, the
confession of a woman, who doesn’t give up, to come to terms with her relationship with her German mother,
the actress Alžběta Frejková. At the same time she has to deal with the difficult life of a
child of a public enemy, being the daughter of Ludvík Frejka, who was sentenced to death following a
staged trial and in 1952 executed alongside Rudolf Stránský. Mother and daughter were exiled from
Prague and moved to the borderlands.... Her story partly resembles antique drama and partly a nightmare.
Hana Frejková was joined in the creation by Miřenka Čechová, who
is undoubtedly currently one of the most notable female directors of dance and physical theatre. It has been a
harmonious cooperation, both elegant and tactful. The trilogy Invisible
I, of which Hannah is the first part, is
an
impressive piece of art, unique in different ways. On the stage, we can follow the life of Hana through an improvisation of everyday tasks, in a
feverish effort to
tidy up all the sediments of life and through
both sharing and confiding,
thoughts, monologues, movements and music. Right from the initial words the audience is drawn in: I am 75 years old/this is my head/my brain/eyes/ears /neck/painful shoulders/right
hand/spine/Ouch!/my leg/one/the other one/knees/ankles/foot arch/ME. The
value of the
initial words is strengthened by the fact that it is the ‘beginning’, first step towards the
audience, the most important one.
The words of the main character move fast. They resonate fast, creating the feeling of
intimacy. The actress continues, full of energy and humour, offering even another option, the need to share is
pressing: I am 75 years old and my name is Hana Frejková. Actually I was born
Hannah Elisabeth Freud. My dad was Ludwig Freud, later Ludvík Frejka, an economist. My mum was Elisabeth
Henke Warnholtz, later Alžběta or Eliška Frejková, an actress. (…) I am deaf in
one ear, my hip hurts. And I was born in London.
I need to add that the author of the text is also Hana Frejková. The unusual style
of direction of Miřenka Čechová builds various scenes out of words, music and movement. Two
figures appear on the stage, Hannah and her alter ego,
charming young dancer Markéta Jandová. Both characters overlap, Jandová moves on the stage
gently, almost lyrically, at times she is only a shadow of the main character, at other times she impersonates
the young self of the main character through expressive means.
Scenes reminding us of the harsh Stalinist regime have a very deep effect, especially
one, where Hannah helplessly says: I, the walking dirt (…) I, who
is nothing and
everything (…) I don’t know.. Who is my father? Who is my mother? (...) Letters from my parents!
From the prison, from emigration to England... (...) And that is the post war meeting of relatives, friends,
family – Who is left? (...) I was already fatherless... The struggle of
everyday life in those days is stressed by her words: Screw ups, that is
me – I am
a constant refugee, a homeless woman. The feeling of uprootedness is
omnipresent.
We always mourn our loved ones with a great sense of loss, especially if it was a tragic
death, a violent one. A political one! The burden I am bearing,
sighs Hannah. The dreadful events of the war and of the 1950’s stay with her all her
life and
through all her artwork. In the theatrical catharsis Hana Frejková goes even further: I went through my years of disarray. From pub to pub, from party to party, from
amphethamines to LSD,
from failure to failure – I went mad, really agonised over things.... she
overtly confesses in the second half of the performance. There is no doubt, that years
of disarray and mental suffering elevated the actress Hana Frejková to the
category of high art. In the second half of the performance, the main character turns to her mother, an actress
of German origin. How is it possible that we can’t understand each
other. You
speak German, I speak Czech. I don’t understand you, you don’t understand me. And still, you are
advising me how to live. Words, phrases, expressions, sentences Hana Frejková
learnt from her mother subconsciously, through feeling; mother spoke only in German, daughter only in
Czech… It is not easy to understand the other person. The audience can clearly see the conflict.
The play Invisible I. Hannah wins
over the
audience through self-expression, honesty and pathos.
The performance Invisible I.Hannah, is a
story of a woman, who was impacted by various tragedies, but also a story of an artist, who has a family,
children and who is getting older. I often return to the mountains in my
dreams./ To the
damp house./ And in it I start to build a new house./ Building myself back up piece by piece./A new part always
appears. The dramatic confession escalates in the final act: I am the same, as when I was young (...) I am different, but I am still the same. My
body can feel it
/my head wants to, it thinks, my soul is alive and still throws itself into the whirlpool of life!
The whole point of the play is undoubtedly in these words, they just underline the fact that
Hana Frejková aka Hannah is a great hero of everyday life. And therefore it is true that both her Yiddish
chansons, which have been in her repertoire for a long time and her latest theatrical performance Invisible I. Hannah are creating a certain
bridge between
her difficult
family history and her current life.
October 2021
Tour to Bremen and Frankfurt-Hattersheim
28.10.2021 Höchster Kreisblatt - Frankfurter Neue Presse.
“HANNAH” the film describes the life of Hana Frejková
Historical context and an interview with "Personality of the Year 2020"
Michael Löffner
Hattersheim - An extraordinary cultural experience with an extraordinary woman awaited the visitors at the screening
of the film "Hannah" shown as part of the event called "1700 years of Jewish Life in Germany." In cooperation from
"AG Opfergedanken", the city organized a short lecture and an QnA follow-up.
The Federal House, in Johan-Sebastian-Bach Street, was filled to capacity. It was very well received by visitors.
City councilman Karl Heinz Spengler welcomed the guests, who spent two engaging hours watching a thematically
homogeneous program. The center of the presentation was Hana Frejková, the main protagonist, author and lead in the
film Hannah. Following the screening of the film Miss Frejková answered the audience's questions without restraint
and emotionally. The discussion was moderated by the professor, Dr. Evi-Ulmer-Otto.
Prior to the artist’s introduction, who travelled from Prague, was able to share the details of her turbulent life,
city archivist Anja Pinkowski introduced the audience to the historical context in a concise and well-presented
short lecture. Visitors not only gained knowledge about life in the then Czechoslovakia, but also regarding the
difficult destinies of Jews there prior to, during and after World War II.
There was a further talk regarding the political processes in the 1950s. Particularly regarding the trial of Rudolf
Slánský, one of the most notorious Stalinist political trials, also called purges, during which Miss Frejková's
father, Ludvik Frejka, was convicted for alleged high treason in 1952. 11 of the 14 defendants were Jews.
The joy of life and the amount of energy
Many viewers were surprised by Miss Frejková's speech; but in the most positive way.
Those who may have expected a woman broken by fate, however, the very opposite was revealed. Yes, in some
remembrances they could feel that this or that memory hurt her, and she spoke openly about the bad times she had to
go through, however, she radiated the a great joy for life and energy.
Miss Frejková was quoted as saying: "Yes, I'm old. But somehow still young."
It’s no wonder this 76-year-old publicist, Yiddish song singer and actress was both nominated and awarded
"Personality of the Year 2020" at the "Next Wave" theater festival three weeks ago!
In the movie "Hannah", she did not complain about her difficult fate. It was first described it in her 2007 book
"Strange Roots".
In this film project from 2020, Miss Frejková had the audience look into her life in a rather artistic way. She
confronted questions of her identity and showed the story of a woman who sought her way to find her place in life
and, after a difficult period, finally did find her way.
Invitation by Lenka Dobrovská for a project of nostalgic monodrama in the café "Konec dobrých starých časů" in the
framework of … příští vlna/next wave ... festival.
Hannah's site-specific performance at the Bubny Railway Station's Silence Memorial.
September 2021
the festival … příští vlna/next wave … Personality of the Year award
PF 2021
October - December 2020
Hannah - obyčejnej život
August - September 2020
Reunveiling of the statue of Sir Nicholas Winton
Photo Tom Rimpel
Summer
Invisible I. /Hannah
Autobiographical performance about the unusual actress and singer Hana Frejková as an archeology of her personal
history.
On the border of lightly dusty stand-up and silent metaphorical images, the story of searching one's place in the
world is told; a story about the unfailing energy of a woman who involuntarily became a heroine of an ancient
tragedy, but still has not given up.
In a dialogue with dancer Markéta Jandová, sound designer Martin Tvrdý and director Miřenka Čechová, Hana Frejková
dives into her memories of childhood, involuntary exclusivity, and jokes about the position of an aging woman - an
artist to whom theater brings one of the important meanings of life.
Hannah is the first part of the Invisible trilogy that deals with the stories of women - artists who at some point
cease to be seen, who are doomed to disappear, who trail away from the spotlight and become invisible, whether due
to their age, unexpected end of career, political events or motherhood.
text: Hana Frejková
actors: Hana Frejková, Markéta Jandová
director: Miřenka Čechová
music: Martin Tvrdý
stage design: Alexandra Schewelew
stage design: Jiří Šmirk
production: Jakub Urban
Photo Vojtěch Brtnický
Year 2020
Jewish Culture Week in Cheb
Carpe Diem Flora
PF 2020
Winter 2019
Concert - Banská Bystrica
Concert in the Theatre at Dlouhá
Fall 2019
"Stavitelé písku" (Sand Builders) - the Next Wave festival
Milena Jesenská in the shadow and light of Franz Kafka
The audiobook is based on my book with the same name and was created thanks to contributions of my fans on Hit-hit
website. It was introduced in Old synagogue in Plzeň, then during the Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod (with Radioservis,
a.s., the coproducer) and finally in the Theatre in Dlouhá together with the concert of the group Yiddish Threesome.
You can buy the audiobook in the Czech radio shop, Vinohradská 12, Prague 2, during our concerts, also on
radioteka.cz.
Photo: Karel Cudlín a Marianna Borecká (last picture)
August 2017
Open Air Arena Betlémské náměstí 2017
Photo: Marianna Borecká
April 2017
Philosophical Faculty of the University J. E. Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem
Spring 2017
‘Dement Lemach’ and concert in the Maisel synagogue
December 2016
PF 2017
"Colourful Thursday", in the Central Library in Prague, Mariánské náměstí.
The end of 2016
Třeboň
‘Devět bran’ - Trutnov
Koncert v Divadle v Dlouhé
September 2016
Hawdal concert in Wroclaw
Summer 2016
Františkovy Lázně
Jindřichův Hradec
Pilsen
June 2016
'Dément Lemach' by Jacob Gordin
Photo: Marianna Borecká (1-10); Mia Köhlerova (11-18)
Tannbach, Schicksal eines Dorfes - Fate of a village (ZDF, Germany)
Reportress (Czech Television)
Spring 2014
Prague, Dlouhá 30.3.2014
Zagreb 10.4.2014
Basileia 25.4.2014
Zurich 27.4.2014
The beginning of the year 2014
Critic on our CD Jidiš VE TŘECH
Itzik goes to market to buy a horse
It's a too long way for Itzik and the innkeeper stands in the door offering him a glass of wine. And so he didn't
buy a horse, but it didn't bother him at all. This is a synopsis of a song on the Yiddish THREESOME album (2013)
that came out last autumn, sung, produced and issued by Hana Frejková supported by various sponsors, especially
by the Jewish Museum in Prague. The title of the CD refers to her music group, coincidentally the third one of
those Hana Frejková gathered around her for performing Jewish music – its specific sound is created by Milan
Potoček and his clarinet and Slávek Brabec with his accordion. Hana's daughter Marianna Borecká often joins the
threesome to enliven things up.
Fifteen songs of the album are of the kind created by life itself – some are traditional folk songs, some have
known authors, but all of them originate in concrete life situations such as people encounter every day and some
also add an upshot moral: Itzik didn't buy a horse, but he had a good time drinking at the inn and enjoying his
favourite tunes. We all know that wives are never satisfied with their husbands and even old spinsters always
complain one thing or another. Potatoes are served for lunch every day and as a change a full pot of potatoes on
the Sabbath Day! However there is also a gentle lullaby, a song about a rabbi, and a love song. One song comes
from a 1936 musical– don't waste time worrying about everyday troubles, life is just a joke!
It isn't important to know exactly what each Yiddish song is about. These songs communicate the feelings of
people, who are behind these episodes and who express their experience through songs. Folk music, especially
Jewish songs, always expresses the mentality of the community from which it originates. When thinking about
these songs, it always comes to my mind why it was so disgusting for Hitler and Nazis: they are composed and
sung disorderly, with no rules like a stray mongrel at a railway station. Hana Frejková's interpretation
emphasizes these properties: she intones and declaims, lengthens phrases and tones, plays with the witty rhythm,
exclaims, dramatises, softens her voice to express a lyrical point or yells out a cynical street song full of
mischief. She simply follows her own mood. Jewish music is inspired by many sources, predominantly by the
oriental melismatic melodies. The accompaniment by the clarinet and the accordion provides a perfect harmonious
support and connects the songs with the European urbane culture. The threesome / foursome are all excellent
musicians both technically and in their style. The seemingly improvised music is of course meticulously
prepared.
I have the CD on my table, actually in my player for a time and I love to listen to it quite often. I perceive
the songs as an essence of rabbinical wisdom and Jewish humour – based on a deep, matter of fact logic that
unmasks the paradoxes contained in superficial points of view. You will not easily get tired of these songs and
they will cheer you up. They are kind of optimistic. Moaning and complaining won’t get you anywhere. Maintaining
a good mood has always been an advantage for all life’s outsiders.
by: Josef Herman
Published: January 4th, 2014
Old Czech songs 15.1.2014.
November 2013
Concerts in Prague and Berlin
October 31, 2013
Theater in Dlouhá Concert with a presentation on new CD.
Summer 2013
Concert and book presentation in Slavonice
Recording studio Smečky - Prague
June 12, 2013
Concert at the occasion of preparing "SOA Memorial " and the "Kaddish" exhibition.
March 2012 concert in Schwalbach at Frankfurt am Mainz and purim
concert in Düsseldorf.
Schwalbach
Photo: Marianna Borecká
Düsseldorf
Photo: Marianna Borecká
November 2011 Hattersheim
Yiddish in Three
Songs about human suffering, ups and downs of life in a „post office courtyard cellar“
The city of Hattersheim has invited us to the post office courtyard cellar to an extraordinary concert night. Hana
Frejková, Milan Potoček and Slávek Brabec from Prague have introduced their fascinating, affecting program „Yiddish
in Three“ full of delights of living.
The singer and actress, who was born in London, has presented a spectacularly intensive concert accompanied with
equally perfect musicians. „I sing songs that mean very much to me, they talk about human sorrow, sadness and
delights,“ described her program the internationally known artist, who graduated at the Janáček's Academy of Arts in
Brno. She was accompanied by Milan Potoček (clarinet) and Slávek Brabec (accordion). Instrumentation of songs
corresponds to tradition of Jewish songs and its markedly expressive style evokes deep impression. Klezmers and
fiddlers use it when playing both on streets, in pubs and backyards. In Hattersheim, Hana Frejková, singer and
actress in many international theatre, musical, cabaret a film productions, has demonstrated a complete range of her
skills and fascinated the audience with her charm and grace, whether singing about the neat thief Awreiml, who hoped
to have the following epitaph on his grave: „Here lies Awreiml, a very good man“, or about orphans or financial
troubles of a young man.
It is clear that the audience did not allow this charismatic personality to leave without an encore.
Relating to the photo: The singer and actress Hana Frejková has presented a spectacularly intensive concert
accompanied with equally perfect musicians.
June, July 2011 concerts in Frankfurt am
Mainz, Munich, Mikulov and within the festival "Šamajim" in Třebíč
Munich
Societies Adalbert –Stifter-Verein, German Sudeten Fund and the Czech Centre organized a small concert in Munich
within the framework of the exhibition related to a project
"Disappeared Neighbours ", A Prague actress and singer Hana Frejková appeared in the German Sudeten House in Munich
together with her daughter Marianna Borecká. The programme was called "Yiddish Trio" and was musically accompanied
by Milan Potoček (clarinet) and Slávek Brabec (accordion).
The seats at the Alfred Kubin gallerywere sold out and the gallery resounded to loud d applause . One could hardly
find any space for extra chairs among the current exhibits at the gallery. The songs of the small ensemble gripped
everyone and the listeners were enthusiastic In fact, the singer, Hana Frejková from Prague, is primarily an
actress. She was born in London as a daughter of a Jewish father and his German wife. Her parents lived there as
exiles during the war. Hana studied at the Janáček's Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. After several
long-term engagements, e.g. in Karlovy Vary and in Prague, she worked as an independent artist at several
international projects. She performed in musicals, cabarets, films and TV productions. German audience knows her
especially from a film production of Michael Verhoeven's My Mother's Courage by George Taboris. However, all the way
through she has also been engaged in singing, performing Yiddish songs similar to those presented at the German
Sudeten House.
As the name of the program (Yiddish Trio) reveals, Frejková appeared together with the jazz musician Milan Potoček
and the keyboard virtuoso Slávek Brabec. Zuzana Jürgens, the director of the Czech Centre in Munich announced
another guest as a surprise. During some songs, the trio was expanded by Marianna Borecká, the singer's daughter,
who studies biology in Prague and who proved herself to be an excellent singer.
At the very beginning, Hana Frejková explained that German is her mother tongue. "I mean the language my mother
used," the charming singer corrected herself. Her mother, Elisabeth Henke-Warnholz from Hamburg married Ludwig
Freund from Liberec, a Jewish journalist, who later became an economist and Hana's father. Under his new name Ludvík
Frejka, Freund was from 1945 until 1952 an economical advisor to the president of the Czechoslovak republic. In 1952
he was executed in the so called Slánský Trials. As Hana Frejková describes in her autobiographic book "Strange
roots" (2007), he was rehabilitated posthumously as late as 1963, Memoir of Hana Frejková also deals with her Jewish
and German roots. Her music represents a way of expressing her respect for her father. “Although”, she adds,” we
didn't speak any Yiddish at home at all."
Before starting to sing, the singer gave a short summary for each song to help the German audience to understand.
Hana’s pronunciation was very clear due to her careful training and therefore the listeners could understand her
songs very well. Harmonic melodies and catchy rhythms addressed everybody, legs and shoulders moved with the rhythm.
In fast sequence the musicians presented a selection of songs in Yiddish, that were created mostly at the turn of
the 19th century.. Melancholic sad songs alternated with humorous ones. In the first song, Awrejml confesses his
thieving and relates how he was forced to thieve as an orphan. Then followed a song called Spilt, a classical
pleading: Play musicians, play a song without tears! Play what I want and what I feel".
In a song called "Dortn" a young man asks his distant girlfriend for love letters. The song "Machatejnste majne"
concerns a wicked mother-in-law, Wajbelech" is an ironic complaint of dissatisfied wives. The female part of the
audience responded to the summary of this song by laughing and saying "Better to stay a spinster!". The song
"Schwartse Karschelech", describes an organ grinder from Warsaw: "Pick black cherries, leave the green ones; love
pretty girls, leave the ugly ones …". Its sweet melody and variable voice fascinated the audience.
During a fire alarm song "S brennt!” and during a song called "Dire-Gelt, the singer demonstrated her dramatic
skills by engaging all her body and involved her mimics and gestures to make the song content clearer. No wonder
since in "Dire-Gelt”, a claim is made by a poor young man who isn’t able to pay his rent. Among her favourites
Frejková named "Papirosn", a song from the Russian Civil War in 1919. An orphan from Odessa sells cigarettes at the
black market to survive. As Hana explained the plot, she stretched her pleading hands toward the imaginary customers
in a perfect pantomime.
The two instrumentalists also proved their skilsl during various solos: Brabec changed the accordion into the organ
and seemed to sound an alarm, Potoček's clarinet once whispered, once blared. Hasidic song "As der Rebbe singt" with
its brisk refrain encouraged all the guests to sing along and almost to dance.
Finally tender lullabies were heard: "Schlaf schön, meine Königin" was dedicated to a hungry little girl. She was
promised: "When you wake up in the morning, the room will be full of bread". In the poetic lullaby "Veigele", Hana’s
daughter Marianna with her dark voice had a solo. After another lively song about a rabbi (when rabbi Elimejlech
drinks too much he invites two violinists…), was the first encore and yet another lullaby finally wished everybody
good night.
On arrival, the guestswere received by Wolfgang Schwarz, an agent for the Czech Countries from the society "Stifter
Verein". There was also an opportunity to see an impressive exhibition, which created a fitting visual background to
Yiddish songs . The travelling exhibition called "Zmizelí sousedé" ("Disappeared neigbours") told life stories of
the Jews deported during the Second World War, and was part of a project of the same name initiated by the Jewish
Museum in Prague. Czech students went searching for the fates of the deported Jewish fellow citizens that had lived
in the near neighborhood. Klaus Mohr from the Sudeten German foundation stated that the exhibition would be
presented in Stutgart next. Mohr also ensured that all the names of the villages listed at the exhibition were
expressed both in Czech and in German.
Susanne Habel
Frankfurt
March, April 2011 concerts in Weiden, Františkovy Lázně, Wroclaw.
Weiden
“Schpil,schpil mir a Lidele mit Harts un mit Gefil”. Hana Frejkova not only sang but used the movements of her whole
body to perform each word. The renowned Prague singer and actress held on Sunday a concert of Yiddish songs in a
synagogue before a large audience of visitors. Through these songs the international artist paid her respects to her
Jewish heritage.
Frejkova has worked on a large number of international theatre and film productions such as Michael Verhoeven's film
adaptation of Gerorge Taboris's “Mother Courage”. In Weiden she was accompanied by the eminent clarinettist Milan
Potocek and by Slavek Brabec on the accordion. The London born actress and singer and graduate of the Janacek
Academy in Brno, presented the programme in German which is not her mother tongue but rather the tongue of her
mother..
The highest points of the concert were Hermann Jablokoff's (1903-1981) “Papirosn”, the moving “Dortn is Dortn” about
a couple that separate and a song about the thief Avrejm who dreams of an honourable gravestone. The singer
humorously portrayed grumbling wives and complaining mother-in-laws. Not even the drunk “Rabbi Melech” was spared
her wise and elegant humour. The singer also addressed the serious theme of persecution and pogroms in the song
“Unser Schtetl brennt” with a solemn reserve. It did not end simply with the piercingly heart rending chords of the
accordion, the accusation led to the plea “Don't stand there doing nothing, go and put out the fire!”
The perfectly harmonized trio became a quartet during the moving song of reconciliation when they were joined by
Hana Frejkova's daughter, Marianna Borecka. Normally more interested in biology than music she made a significant
contribution with her rich dark voice and sparkling musicality.
Photo: Anastasia Poscharsky Ziegler and Marianna Borecká
Františkovy Lázně
Photo: Marianna Borecká
Wroclaw
Photo: Marianna Borecká
2011 Evening composed from poetry by Marina Cvetajeva
"... but first of all the same bed. Did you mean abyss?"
director: Irena Žantovská,
music: Tomáš Reindl,
cast: Nela Boudová, Jana Bernášková, Hana Frejková, Slávek Brabec.
April 2010 Yiddish IN THREE
with clarinettist Milan Potoček and accordionist
Slávek Brabec.
Accordion and clarinet are instruments of klezmers, scrapers, who played
inpubs, on courtyards and streets. They are adherent to Jewish songs
adding them unforgettable charm a creating a unique mood.
2009Macedonian Opera and Ballet in Skopje, 22.6.2009
2007Strange Roots – reviews
Dnes
Kavárna Column, December 1, 2007
Jozef Chuchma
I finally have an idea who I am
Actress HANA FREJKOVÁ has written a unique story about searching for herself and digging for truth about her
heavily stigmatized family. Her father was executed in 1952 after a trial with an alleged treasonous
conspiratorial group.
Many books have been written about the political trials of the 1950’s, including memoirs by the accused who
survived (such as Artur London) or by widows of executed “traitors” (Josefa Slánská, Heda Margoliová). The book
Strange Roots by actress Hana Frejková is different in three aspects.
These are the memories of a woman of another generation, who perceived the trials as a little child barely of
school age. She embarked on a systematic mission to find out what actually was going on around her father,
Ludvík Frejka, who was head of the Economic Department of the Office of the President of the Republic before he
was arrested, and she became an amateur researcher in the archives that were made accessible after November
1989. Frejková has developed the collage of her narration as a story of her personal growth, her – to use the
language of Jungian psychology – individuation, her “strange roots.”
We disclaimed ourselves, damn it
“The fiftieth anniversary of the trial with the treasonous conspiratorial group has stirred up my
childhood memories…of the terror that was taking place before my seven-year-old eyes…of my parents who
undoubtedly meant well, who loved me and wished only the best for me. Paradoxically, I have been
tormented by guilt all my life. (…) By feeling guilty for having ever believed that my father was – to
put it in a child’s words – a traitor, that they supposedly talked him into becoming a spy when he was
imprisoned in England,” Frejková says at the beginning of her book. After some eighty pages, she adds:
“That fateful night, I was told that my father was a traitor. And so we disclaimed each other. We
disclaimed the most important thing in human life, the basic values that make one’s life meaningful; we
disclaimed ethics, the primary order. It still makes me cry; I want to push so hard on my pen and make a
hole in the paper while writing this, that’s how much it hurts! We were thrown between millwheels and
grinded to powder.”
Just as a reminder: In November 1952, a trial was staged with Communist “conspirators;” eleven of them were
sentenced to death (including Rudolf Slánský, Secretary General of the Czechoslovak Communist Party) and
three to life imprisonment. Except for two, all these men were of Jewish origin, including Ludvík Frejka
(born 1904). His original name was Ludwig Freund and his family came from the town of Liberec. He defected
to England to flee from the Nazis. Hana was born in London in January 1945 to him and his wife, Elisabeth
Henke-Warnholtz (1907 – 1990), who came from Hamburg and was an actress in the Czechoslovak Republic between
the two wars. After WWII, the family of staunch Communists returned to Prague. Following the father’s
execution, the mother and the daughter were evicted to the Sudetenland. Hana’s mother worked at a textile
factory; Hana attended school. When the father was rehabilitated in 1963, they were allowed to come back to
Prague. “Although I was born in London, the exile made a village girl out of me and I was scared even to
get on a paternoster lift. I struggled to cope with our new situation, but my original guilt
increasingly got in my way. And so instead of enjoying my “return” to Prague, I wrestled with my soul; I
was trying to get to the substance of myself, my young life went from one extreme to another, from
drinking, depression, LSD…protests of all kinds.”
Nevertheless, Hana graduated from the Janáček Academy of Music and Drama (JAMU) in 1967, she worked with
theatres in Karlovy Vary, Kladno and Prague; at the time of “normalization” in the 1970’s, she spent ten
years secretly visiting a psychoanalyst; she got married, became a freelancer and had two daughters. Slowly,
she began to live her own life, for herself, without any eroding remorse, recognizing her own unique value
and her own way. Her book, Strange Roots, is the evidence and confirmation of this.
Antonín Had to Believe
Strange Roots fluctuates between memoirs, confession and an avowal motivated by self-therapy. The
author knows that it will only be worthwhile if she tells the entire story. The ungrammatical Czech title of
the book shows that not only is Frejková not shy to use – not frequently, but highly functionally –
expressive language, but also that the bilingual or even multilingual world of her parents collided with
their faith in Communism and with the terror of history, as a result of which the only language Hana has
ever learned was Czech; and even that is a bit “strange,” showing up in her not always correct use of
idioms, for instance.
The original nervy quality of the book is significantly contributed to by citations from archival materials:
from secret police surveillance reports, from testimonies of investigators who had to confess (but were not
held responsible) before commissions several years after the monstrous trial with Slánský and the others,
from miscellaneous correspondence including the letters Hana’s mother wrote to state officials and their
answers to her. “…there are many things one would rather not believe if they did not have to,”
Antonín Zápotocký wrote to Hana’s mother on 14 June 1952.
I give considerable credit to Frejková’s book – save for the following: I cannot understand why the
publishing house did not better promote the book in the blurb – it would have sufficed to provide basic,
well formulated information on the content. Apparently, there are missing captions with some reproductions
of documents and photographs. And the text by historian Pavel Žáček is far more of a lecturer’s expert
opinion than an epilogue. Nevertheless, there is absolutely no doubt that Strange Roots certainly
is far from being a commonplace book. (jch)
Strange Roots
Hana Frejková. Epilogue by Pavel Žáček; photographs of archival documents by Blanka Lamrová. Torst, Praha
2007, 180 pages, recommended price CZK 199.
Vltava Club Magazine
Winter 2007
A quarterly of listeners and friends of Český rozhlas 3 – Vltava radio station
Fates – Radio Memoirs
Hana Frejková: Strange Roots
Hana Frejková was born as Hannah Elisabeth Freund in London in 1945. In her book, Strange Roots, she
says that she has never used any of these names.
The parents of Hana Frejková were the actress Elisabeth Warnholtz, a Hamburg-born German who lived in Bohemia
from 1945 until her death, and Ludvík Frejka, his original name being Ludwig Freund, born in Liberec, a
journalist by profession who was executed resulting from a political trial on December 3, 1952. He was an
economist, a policymaker and a political writer. ... The staged trial was held between November 20 and 27,
1952. Ludvík Frejka was accused of high treason and espionage, one of the charges being that he allegedly
wanted to form a “European federation.” He was sentenced to death and executed shortly thereafter.
In her book, Hana Frejková writes: “The result was that he was hanged; my mum grieved all her life and I
have been torn by all sorts of guilt. The ones who suffered most were us who loved one another so much,
and our little family found itself in a fatal grip of crushing stones.”
Hana Frejková writes about how she lost all her roots and family continuity when she was seven years old. She
and her mother were moved out of their flat in Prague and lived as exiles. Her mother stopped speaking
German; Hana has never learned it. ... The book Strange Roots contains numerous citations from
family documents as well as court files and materials made available by the State Secret Police archives.
However, the main theme is the personal line of the author, her search for herself, the “squaring up.” ...
Among those sentenced to death, Ludvík Frejka represented three offences: he was a Jew, he disagreed with
the Soviet economic philosophy and, on top of that, he was German. His example was a clear warning about the
kind of people who simply would not be tolerated under Communist politics of the Soviet bloc.
Today, we can hear Hana Frejková in concerts signing chansons in Yiddish and see her on the stage of the
Divadlo v Dlouhé. In her book, from which she will be reading in the Fates cycle, she has written: “My
Father left when my skirts were short and, through this story, has come back now when my skirts are
long...”
Alena Zemančíková
Roš chodeš
12/2007
Hana Frejková’s Time Travel
She was born in England, her parents fled from the Nazis who then killed the rest of her father’s family. Her
father was an economist; after the war, he could settle anywhere he wanted, but he chose a country in which,
just a few years later, his own colleagues and comrades invaded his home at night, imprisoned him, accused
him of treason and, eventually, executed him. They then scattered his ashes under the wheels of cars on a
side road. She was seven years old at the time. Her friends avoided her; one night, the secret police packed
her and her mother in a lorry and took them away to exile. After some time, it turned out that her father
had not been a conspirator, but fell a victim to his friends’ plot. With the passing of time, they gradually
admitted a mistake was made, but they felt no guilt whatsoever. However, one of the victims felt guilty.
“We disclaimed the most important thing in human life, the basic values that make one’s life meaningful;
we disclaimed the ethics, the primary order,” Hana Frejková recollects many years later in her book
Strange Roots, recently published by Torst, Prague. “It still makes me cry; I want to push hard
on the pen and make a hole in the paper writing this, that’s how much it hurts! We were thrown between
millwheels and grinded to powder… All my life, I have agonized over having ever believed that my father
was a traitor.”
A tragic involution, a plot, a judicial murder, twists of luck and fatal decisions, an innocent child amidst
calamity, even a chorus (represented here by the multitude of informers and setters) – indeed, this story
has some elements of an ancient drama, as the author herself ironically suggests. Only it is as if Kafka or
Ionesco were the literary advisors: to save himself, the accused accuses himself and memorizes a fabricated
testimony; it is possible that he was guilty of something, perhaps of helping, as they say, “set the
mills turning that then grinded him to dust,” but definitely not of what he was sentenced for; it
is not the murderers who feel guilty, it is the victim, and what is more, a child of this victim – even
though half a century had gone by…
Hana Frejková waited for half a century before she dared going back in time to that seven-year-old girl, and
even a bit further. She has captured her discoveries, experiences and thoughts in a book that is difficult
to characterize in terms of a literary form. It is a bit wild: there are changing tenses, various levels of
narration and author’s methods; there is a mixture of genres, a little bit of memoirs here, a little bit of
a detective story there, examination of strictly factual documents, a confession, something of an essay,
something of investigative non-fiction. Surprisingly though, it is coherent. The author relates what she
remembers, but her memories are only one of the routes she pursues on her search mission. On another
tangent, she searches round the world for her kith and kin, another takes her to the archives, on yet
another, she struggles to put the fragments of her findings together, trying to assess them. It is this
rewarding compositional motif of a journey and nearly detective inquiry that holds the text together and
moves it forward, keeping the author’s – and the reader’s – attention. The author determines the direction
and character of the search, she takes an active part in it and assesses it at the same time; she is both
the object and the subject of the events. It would be impossible to do it otherwise, considering what her
search is about.
On her way back in time, Frejková is surprised to find out that she knows nothing of her parents’ background,
is not sure of her own name, mother tongue, nationality, her place in the country where she lives… All this
sounds like a setting for a silly soap opera, but for the author, it is the setting of her life. We believe
her that, more than other people, she needs to find “herself, a patch of firm ground underneath (her)
feet.” “Relationships in our family were absolutely abnormal; our lives were guilt-soaked and it was the
guilt that continued to exist under the surface and kept us in the grip of totality,” she says.
“I want to confess to that guilt, I want to accuse my parents and, at the same time, I want to exonerate
them by telling about their lives, about my life, about the way to become an individual who has a right
to live in a society and to find a place in the sun!”
Frejková had the subject matter for a novel, but apparently, this was not her ambition; she just wanted to
bear testimony – and she did that in an extraordinarily brilliant and authentic way. The thing is – she
approached the task from a completely opposite direction than is customary. She did not take her journey
against the current of time for the sake of her audience, but to “answer to herself the question of how
it could all have happened.” Unlike many others, she is not looking to find justification in the
circumstances of the era; she is not interested in the guilt of others, she tries to identify and weigh the
extent of her own guilt and that of the people closest to her. If she arrives at any conclusions, she leaves
it up to the reader to accept or reject them.
And so her book suggests one of the ways of really doing what we have only heard repeated ad nauseam
– to ‘square up’ with the past. The fact that it can still be done so credibly after fifty years is quite
encouraging.
Tomáš Pěkný
Divadelní noviny
17/1 8/January 2008
A gentleman sends his regards to you... they hanged his father, too
To be a child of a Communist sentenced to death in a political trial in the 1950’s – let alone, in the main
trial with the alleged treasonous conspiratorial group of Rudolf Slánský – is a lifelong stigma nearly
impossible to cope with. The actions and attitudes of the parents are incomprehensible now; their life
stories are impenetrable and their ends desperate regardless of whether they were sentenced to death or
rehabilitated later on – for the most part, awkwardly and half-heartedly. Their mutilated lives and the
lives of their wives are full of pain and bloodstains that cannot be washed off. Their children, too, have
been carrying this infliction within themselves throughout their lives. In a way, their trauma is even
deeper, because they did nothing to bring it upon themselves; to this day, they have not really understood
what happened, who their parents really were, and why one of them ended up being executed.
“This year, it will be four years from the fiftieth anniversary of the Slánský trial, and I have waded
through it all. Finally, I mustered the courage to immerse myself in it, to find out what actually
happened. Perhaps, it was because I had no other alternative; perhaps, I did not want to leave it
open-ended; the whole story, the sorrows, the struggling, the standstills, the faltering, the
desperation.”
Actress Hana Frejková was born in London on 17 January 1945. Her mother Elisabeth (born 1907) came from the
Ruperti family, prominent businessmen and merchants in Hamburg. In the end of the 1920’s, she studied at the
private acting school of Elke Grüning in Berlin; she was awarded the Max Reinhardt Prize as one of the best
theatre school graduates in Germany and left for Prague to join the New German Theatre, where she stayed
until the beginning of World War II. Under her maiden name of Elisabeth Warnholtz, she acted in plays by
Wedekind, Goethe, Moliere, Katajev, Danton, Strindberg, and Hauptmann. In the mid 1930’s, she became a
Czechoslovak citizen and a Czechoslovak Communist Party member. She left the country fleeing from Hitler on
the last train that departed from the Wilson Station on 15 March 1939. Her brother-in-law carried her
luggage; he was a Wehrmacht officer who had arrived to Prague with the army in the morning that day and came
to visit his relation. Two hours after he and Elisabeth left the flat, the Gestapo came for her. Her
brother-in-law – “a nice guy” – then died in the first assault on the Soviet Union in 1941. In exile, she
immediately joined the anti-fascist resistance.
Hana Frejková’s father Ludvík, formerly Ludwig Freund, was born in 1904. He was a Jew, descended from a
German Czech family of medical doctors living in Liberec (most of his relatives perished in concentration
camps during the war); he studied in Berlin and at the London School of Economics. In his youth, he became a
Communist. ... He spent the war years in London, where he worked with the exiled government of President
Beneš. After the war, he became a high official of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party
as an economist; between 1948 and 1952, he was head of the Economic Department of the Office of the
President of the Republic, Klement Gottwald. On January 31, 1952, he was arrested; in the main trial with
Slánský in November, he was, together with another ten people, sentenced to death and executed on December
3. “The sentenced was brought in at 5:01 a.m.; the execution started at 5:03 a.m.; the executioner
reported the execution to have been done at 5:05 a.m.; the medical doctor pronounced the sentenced dead
at 5:10 a.m.; the sentenced made no statement before execution,” Frejková quotes from a document
she obtained when mapping the history and the roots of her family after the fall of Communism in November
1989. She has described this search, this discovery, this painful belated journey to find her father and
mother, but really to find herself and her past, which the tragic events had locked somewhere deep in her
subconscious, in her recently published book Strange Roots (Torst, 2007). It is stirring and, at
the same time, sorrowful reading. The fates she writes about were dreadful. But dreadfully uprooted was also
her own fate...
... Despite that, Hana graduated from a grammar school and started working as a student actress/lighting
technician at the theatre in Most. After 1963, she studied at the Janáček Academy of Music and Drama. ...
She has continued to be a professional actress since then; today she is a freelancer. Her life “has gone
from one extreme to another, from drinking, depression, LSD…protests.”
In her book, she gives a most truthful account of her traumas. In the form of a detective investigation, she
gradually unveils to the reader the history of her family, offering comments, often critical and/or posing
great questions. In the Czech environment, this is a unique book, more or less a novella with documentary
features; it captures the tragedies of the 1950’s, their genesis and consequences through the eyes of a
child and, later, an innocent victim. It is fascinating to read. It is important to hear stories like this.
Only through them can we comprehend at least some of the impervious, incomprehensible history of this
country and us – its children – in the second half of the 20th century.
“I lived at the periphery of the society and I was merely allowed to survive. I was constantly in the
grip of guilt. (...) I want to confess to that guilt, I want to accuse my parents and, at the same time,
I want to exonerate them by telling about their lives.”
Vladimír Hulec
Právo
February 7, 2008
The Roots of Hana Frejková
“Actors put their souls into trying to be different, exceptional. I have tried to be normal all my life.
I got fed up with exceptionalities,” she notes in her biographical book entitled Strange
Roots (published by Torst).
Traveling the Depths of Fate
In the one hundred and seventy-five pages of her book, Hana Frejková has probed into the dramatic and tragic
fate of her parents, recollecting her own memories, searching for her relatives abroad, browsing through
family correspondence, but mainly doing an almost detective-like investigation into the archives of the
Ministry of Interior.
Motiv byl zprvu zcela osobní: Chtěla jsem se dobrat toho, jací byli mí rodiče a proč to udělali, tedy proč mi
to udělali? Potíž byla v tom, že svého otce vlastně nestačila poznat a cesta za pochopením matky byla
svízelná a bolestná.
(...) The time went on, there came the invasion year of 1968, the years of normalization, and then the velvet
year of 1989. “You will have a hard time now, girl, being a daughter of Communists,” was one of her
mother’s last sentences in hospital in 1990.
That’s the Way It Is
And this is the last sentence of the non-pining, matter-of-fact, and highly compelling Strange
Roots: “When our daughter Marjánka was thirteen years old (…) she found herself at our embassy
in London and sent me this SMS: A gentleman sends his regards to you, I have forgotten his name, he’s
got a beard, they hanged his father, too, and he is now a programmer here in England.” Thank you,
Marjánka; without this SMS, I could hardly end up as usual by saying: That’s the way it is.
Pavel Šrut, Právo
2008 Divadelní noviny
4 March 2008
Divadelní noviny has recently published a complimentary review of Strange Roots (Torst, Prague
2007), a book by actress Hana Frejková (born in 1945). From 18 February, Vltava radio station was
broadcasting her readings from the book. ... The traditional Fates section, starting every weekday
at 11:30, devoted above-standard ten sequels to her reading; the excerpts, carefully selected by Alena
Zemančíková and Míla Ruzhová, proved this well worthwhile, particularly owing to the unpretentious
performance of the protagonist, whose family’s lives were certainly not easy.
....
Her parents brought her up as a Czech, although they had to speak German to each other. Her father Czechified
his name from Ludwig Freund to Ludvík Frejka and became engaged in building socialism in former
Czechoslovakia. Her mother started learning Czech together with her daughter.
Only a few years later, in 1952, Ludvík Frejka was executed in a “trial with the treasonous conspiratorial
group.” What followed was a longtime martyrdom for the rest of the family. Yet, the reader can hear that at
least one of the unfortunate parents’ plans certainly came off. They succeeded in bringing up their daughter
as a true Czech, who has, for all her life, been confirming this transformation as an excellent actress. And
now even as the author of an engrossing Czech book.
Petr Pavlovský
TVAR 09/08
IN SEARCH OF PAST TIME
Hana Frejková: Strange Roots, Torst, Prague 2007
Strange Roots is neither non-fiction, a biography of the author’s parents and the image of their
public activities, as could be written by Pavel Kosatík, for instance, nor is it an autobiography of Hana
Frejková. It is real literature, not a dry report. The author constantly interrupts the related factual data
by specific memories from her childhood, spent with her mother in the little North Bohemian town of Janov,
from her student years as well as from her first years as an actress; she speaks about her trips to Hamburg
and London, she tries to decide where to deposit the urn with her mother’s ashes, and she talks to her
computer. Sometimes, the reader laughs, such as when Frejková realizes that she has been encountering
difficulties throughout every era and offers a good-soldier-Svejk-like comment: “Once unwelcome, always
unwelcome.” More often, though, your eyes will tear up when reading this book. The book owes its first-hand
and heart-to-heart quality to the author’s language. It is written in standard Czech with occasional
conscious slips into the morphology and vocabulary of colloquial Czech, as indicated by the very title of
the book in Czech. Frejková read excerpts from her book in the Fates show at the Vltava radio station, but
even when you just read the book, you can almost hear her animated storytelling.
Several times in her book, the author voices her doubts about what nationality she actually is, with both
parents being originally German and her father being Jewish and “Deutschbohme” on top of that. These
deliberations are the leitmotif of the book. Although she enjoys using popular idioms (having eyes like
tennis balls, I looked like a freshly turned-up mouse) and can paraphrase citations from the fictitious
Czech genius Jára Cimrman, Frejková insists, though rather jokingly, that quite far into her adult age, she
was uncertain about the meaning of some Czech idioms, the reason allegedly being that her mother, who never
really became intimately acquainted with the Czech language, kept silent with Hana during her early
childhood. Frejková sums up the search for her national identity in a single sentence: “Simply, I am myself,
a mixture I have pieced up somehow. But I did it!” Her Strange Roots proves that, beside acting and
singing talents, she also has literary abilities and can write well in Czech. I hope, therefore, that she
would not object if I described her using the final verses from a 1930’s poem by Otokar Fischer: “... I’ve
been given keys to many a flat // their number being great. // But I only have one homeland // the land of
The Bouquet.”
Jiří Rambousek
(Note of translator: The Bouquet, in Czech Kytice, is a collection of ballads by the Czech author Karel
Jaromír Erben.)
Babylon Volume XVII No. 6
Your Father Was a Traitor
Deliberations and memories of Hana Frejková mingle with authentic documents obtained by the author from
police archives. The corrupt language of documents and protocols of the State Secret Police, her parents’
correspondence from prison, routine official reports – all play a major part in the plan of the author.
Language, as a means of communication, reaches beyond intellectual perception. Hana Frejková is aware of
this, having had to learn to perceive many things rather intuitively herself. Even her book is rather
intuitive, subtly sketched, as an unfinished sentence. It is neither because of her fear of the truth, nor
because of inconsistency, but simply because some things defy real understanding.
Stanislav Škoda
2009 “Well-Colored” Story
Kateřina Vlčková
Rozhlas Weekly 1/2009
On 20 November, Hana Frejková read her piece “Klema’s Last Charwoman” in the Modern Story cycle at the Vltava
radio station under the dramaturgy of Alena Zemančíková and direction by Petr Mančal. The noted actress and
singer (you could listen to her memoirs, Strange Roots, as part of the Fates cycle this year in February)
brings us to the mausoleum at Vítkov Hill in Prague, where the mummified body of “our first working-class
President” Klement (aka Klema) Gottwald was kept in the 1950’s.
Speaking in the first person, the title character calls Gottwald by his familiar name of Klema. As far as
cleanliness is concerned, he is in the best hands with her; (…) our little Mary, the comrades say about her,
(…) she can polish even the unpolishable. And so she keeps polishing away “because things need to be clean,
you know…”
Gradually, the mausoleum opens up to us. (...) The plot is composed of little splinters of action; put
together, they depict repeated embalming efforts, related by a lay witness, an ordinary woman of her time,
and a trustworthy comrade on top of that. Yet, the character’s entrance upon the radio stage has made her
unique.
Quite irrationally, ninety-eight employees took care of a single corpse. (...) If we did not know that the
author had relied on historical facts, we would have to laugh in disbelief.
The obvious satire only lightly tinkles in the audience’s ears without disturbing the soft and velvety voice
of Hana Frejková. (...) After a few sentences, we get a clear picture of a petite line-faced woman in her
fifties, enormously honored with this unique, vital task. This is a person, who has been missing the symbol
of the Communist regime very much and who looks up to his remains as a sacrament. Take his forehead, for
instance – the symbol of great wisdom that produced such magnificent ideas. What a blow that he had to die!
This radio piece is a shining example of working with voice. The author gracefully handles the sharp cuts
between the characters of the narrator and the charwoman. When the charwoman finds out that the President’s
body is missing an arm, a leg and the torso, she is so devastated that the audience can almost taste the
salt in her tears.
The story is underpinned by corresponding music, adding to the context of the era – a choir singing the
International, the Dead Revolutionaries March that the past regime made so profane, or the parade march of
the Castle Guard.
Klema’s Last Charwoman not only lets the audience delight in the beauty of the spoken word, refined text and
its excellent rendition, but also reminds us of how an aggressive ideology can indoctrinate the brain of an
ordinary human being.
2006 Masquerade
Theatre in Dlouhá, Terry Pratchett Masquerade directed by Hana Burešová
2005 3+1 with Donutil
2005 Podvíní
photo by Martin Patočka
2004 Snowboard Men
From a review:
Finally, this is a Czech film that could become a teen cult film. Directed by Karel Janak, Snowboard Men
follows up on the best tradition of Czech ‘mountain comedies' while being modern, slightly romantic and
full of humour...
2004 Nine Gates
In 2004, Hana Frejkova sang at the Nine Gates Festival with the Duo in Three group, inviting violinist
Alexandr Schonert as her guest.
2004 Mine-Haha
2003 Songs in Yiddish
performing: Hana Frejková - voice, Michal Hromek - guitar
From the book The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten:
For the benefit of innocents, I hasten to add that Yiddish and
Hebrew are entirely different languages. A knowledge of one will
not give you even a rudimentary understanding of the other. True,
Yiddish uses the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, employs a great
many Hebrew words, and is written, like Hebrew, from right to
left. But Yiddish and Hebrew are as different from each other as
are English and French, which also use a common alphabet, share
many words, and together proceed from left to right.
Nor is Yiddish a synonym for Jewish. Yiddish is the
name of a language. Technically speaking, there is no language
called Jewish. Strictly speaking, Jews do not speak Jewish
any more than Canadians speak Canadian, or Baptists read Baptist.
But it would be foolish to deny that in popular English
usage, Jewish is used as a synonym for Yiddish. After
all, Yiddish comes from the German Jüdisch, meaning Jewish,
and in the Yiddish language itself Yiddish means Jewish. We may
as well accept reality.
The magic of the Yiddish language comes alive in traditional songs
written mostly at the turn of the XXth century. They tell of human joy
and sorrow with both irony, wit, as well as nostalgy. Hana Frejková
accompanies her concert with Jewish proverbs, jokes and quotations from
Leo Rosten´s book The Joys of Yiddish. The songs, sung in Yiddish, talk
about hardships as well as joys of the Jewish people. Each of the songs
has its own unique history. The author of the Papirosn song,
for instance, wrote the piece between 1919 and 1920 during the civil
war in Odessa, then he left for Turkey and was never heard of again.
Another example is The Dortn, Dortn, a love song that reportedly
became the anthem of the Soviet partisans during WWII, many of them
Jewish.
2003 From an Interview with Irena Douskova for Maskil
Magazine
You sing with Prager Tandlmarkt; a CD of the same name came out two years ago and was an
immediate success. How long have you been working together?
I have been singing with Prager Tandlmarkt for the past three years, with a violin, clarinet, accordion,
guitar and base. One of the highlights of our work was last autumn, when we gave a successful concert at
the Prague Season festival in Paris, France. As to my most recent activities, I have started touring
with a recital of my own last autumn, accompanied by the guitarist and composer Michal Hromek. In
addition to songs, I speak a little bit more compared to Prager Tandlmarkt concerts. I have been using
The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten. I tell Jewish anecdotes to explain the Yiddish expressions that the
audience encounters in the songs and I select various stories depending on the season and current
holidays – for instance, I tell a Chanukah story, or recently a Purim story. You might say I am raising
people's awareness.
Are all of the songs in Yiddish, or do you also sing in Hebrew?
No, I don't sing in Hebrew. I sing in Yiddish because I understand it completely – in a way, it is a
compromise between my Jewish father and my German mother. We were a German speaking family, but I am not
really fluent in it because my parents had decided to make a Czech out of me. Until recently, I had
believed my Czech to be absolutely perfect. My husband proved me wrong, though. For instance, I used to
think that listening in on someone was “earsdropping.” Come to think of it, I find my way among people
by feeling rather than by words; words don't mean that much to me. My way of acting is like that, too. I
am not worried about my character having large blocks of text – I always wait for the moment when I
understand who that person is, what her soul is like. Once I get that, the lines are no longer a
problem.
Since March last year, you have starred alongside Igor Sebo and Katerina Duskova in the cabaret
Long Live the Life, directed by Olga Struskova. Can you tell us more about this production?
It is a collection of scenes, sketches and songs from Czech and German cabarets staged in the Terezin
concentration camp during WW II. The title comes from the Svenk cabaret Long Live the Life. The songs
and dialogs are in both Czech and German, just as it was in real Terezin where a multilingual company of
people was forced to share a very limited space. At the same time, it reflects the Czech-German-Jewish
society in pre-war Prague. The author of this version is Kobi Luria, a native Israeli musicologist who
had repeatedly met with the witnesses and reconstructed the whole cabaret based on their recollections.
We opened at the Na pradle Theatre in Prague and most of our recent performances have been at the
Vikadlo Theatre in Prague's Vinohrady quarter. Coincidentally, I used to know both of the ladies who had
performed in the original Terezin cabaret. I met Vava Schon when she would visit here after the 1989
Velvet Revolution and I gave literary evenings reading from her book “I Wanted to Be an Actress.” But I
got to know the other lady, Kamila Rosenbaum, more personally. Before the war, Kamila Rosenbaum had
worked as a choreographer for the famous V+W (Voskovec and Werich); she then went through Terezin,
survived and married Mr. Guth after the war. They had two daughters, both of whom later emigrated. I
knew Kamila Rosenbaum very well, and I loved her dearly. I would even come to discuss my problems with
her. She was one of the personalities who had the greatest influence upon my life. Anytime I think of
the cabaret, I also think about her as a close friend. We were so close that she even substituted for my
mum in some ways. When I studied the part, I spent quite some time pondering what the play was about...
You see, I believe that the most important thing is to be able to put it in one simple sentence. I
summed it up as: Living your life without self-pity. That is the credo of this play, which has
transcended until the present day. It would be wonderful if one could handle all pain, worries and
problems without self-pity, wouldn't it. And they did it, even in times that were so horrible.
Irena Douskova
2002 Long Live the Life
A cabaret
From a review, November 2002: ... The Czech version of the ghetto-revue Long Live the Life is subtitled “The Lost Talents Club,”
commemorating all Terezin artists who were struggling in the face of hardship, yet were able to create
unusual cultural values ... The show was received very warmly by the audiences...
From a review, 2003: ... We met at the Vinohrady Café Theatre to see the cabaret show Long Live the Life. The full
house watched scenes and songs that had once been staged at the Terezin ghetto. I could not help
thinking about how I would have reacted: Would I have been strong enough to laugh as they had? This was
an invaluable opportunity to appreciate the performance of present-day actors and to take off our hats
to the strength of the protagonists back then...
B. Sir
2000 – 2002 Nunsense II
From a review, February 14, 2000: ...At the end of the opening night of the famed musical Nunsense II, the audience rewarded the team of
director Miroslav Hanus with more than twenty minutes of applause... The sequel certainly does not just
live off the first part...
From a review, February 18, 2000: ... The quintet of ladies run a wide gamut of musical acting – they act, sing and dance with enormous
energy and vigour. Hana Frejkova as Mother Superior is superb – not only in her monologue
On my brother 's burnt ass , but
she is also an excellent singer...
2000 Songs in Yiddish – Prager Tandlmarkt
Between 2000 and 2003, Hana Frejkova had been singing with Prager Tandlmarkt. In 2000, she recorded a CD with
the group, entitled Prager Tandlmarkt .
Prager Tandlmarkt was established as a group of musicians with close affinity to Jewish culture and many
years of experience in playing this kind of music. It has undergone many changes, both in cast and number of
players. The selection of instruments is based on the traditional klezmer concept (violin, clarinet,
contrabass, accordion), complemented by modern instruments. Since 2002, the group has given concerts under
the direction of Zdenek Zelba (violin) with a clarinet, accordion, guitar and contrabass, with Hana Frejkova
singing the lyrics in Yiddish.
The group performs a repertoire of Jewish songs, arranged by Z. Zelba. Many of the songs are traditional,
most of them from the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries; the authors of some have long been forgotten.
The songs talk about the hardships as well as the joys of the Jewish people, and have their own unique
history. Herrman Jablokoff, the author of Papirosn , for instance, wrote this song during the civil
war in Odessa, then left for Turkey and was never heard of since. Dortn, Dortn is a love song but
it reportedly became the anthem of the Soviet partisans during WW II, among whom were many Jews.
Instruments & Vocals: H. Frejkova – vocals; Z. Zelba – violin; M. Kostiuk – clarinet;
M. Hromek – guitar; P. Dreser – accordion; M. Zelenka – contrabass.
From a review, Musical Scene: ... Hana Frejkova has been well-known to chanson lovers , but this collection of twelve
songs gives the listeners a unique opportunity to appreciate the richness of her expression, her
fine feel for nuances between genres and, above all, her supreme musicality...
Jan Smolik
1999 – 2003 The Child Behind the Eyes
Between 1999 and 2003, Hana Frejkova starred in The Child Behind the Eyes by Israeli playwright
Nava Semel. In the monodrama directed by Olga Struskova, she played a mother who is preparing her son
suffering from Down syndrome for his first day at school and recaps her life with him.
From a review:
... In the end of the show, we realize that what these perpetual children need is love and
understanding. The strong emotional experience is accentuated by the excellent performance of
Hana Frejkova , supported by the talented Tomas Tkalcovsky in the part of Jotam, with whom
he shares the same destiny...
1998 Blunder
1998 – 2002 Nunsense I
An award-winning musical by Dan Goggin
From a review, June 15, 1998: ...Five actresses act, sing and dance in this “charity show on the occasion of honouring the memory of
our recently deceased sisters,” full of kind – and sometimes rather dark – humour. Hana Frejkova
as Reverend Mother Mary Regina is fabulous (she excels in her hilarious monologue)...
Jiri A. Svoboda
From a review, June 18, 1998: ...Full house at opening night – that does not happen too often in the town of Pribram. It is as if the
audience had the premonition that this was going to be a real treat... The scenes are vivacious, witty
and have the necessary flair. Everything is in constant motion, the actresses do a great job using the
whole stage; all dance numbers have been choreographed and rehearsed flawlessly...
MF Dnes , June 25, 1998: ... The audience applauded for nearly half an hour and there were twenty curtain-calls. All subsequent
performances met with a keen interest of the theatregoers. None of the recent productions can boast of
having such attendance.
From a review, June 29, 1998: The ensemble has never had such audiences, and vice versa – the Pribram theatre house has never treated
its audience to such a show. All in all, twenty curtain-calls and almost thirty minutes of bowing,
encores, euphoria, outbursts of spontaneous laughter and nearly frenetic applause – that is the resume
of the opening night on Thursday...
Z. Brozova
1996 – 1998 Just Another Blasted Love Song
Similar to Enola (1995), a play commemorating the 50 th anniversary of the end of
WW II, Just Another Blasted Love Song by Mark Corner was a bilingual production.
From a review: ... There are several English-language theatre groups in Prague, but only few Czechs seem to know about
them. Strangely enough, we are sorry for our multicultural past to be long gone, but, at the same time,
we are oblivious of the multitude of spontaneous and very unusual cultural activities of our
English-speaking fellow citizens.
This thought must inevitably occur to anyone who has seen the new production of the bilingual theatre
group EXPOSURE, staged in the cellar of the Labyrinth Studio. JUST ANOTHER BLASTED LOVE SONG was written
by Mark Corner, an Englishman living in Prague for the past four years, and directed by his fellow
countryman Michael Halstead. This is the first original play in a long time that takes place in a Czech
environment and addresses a specific audience familiar with the context.
The plot centres on a love story between a book-loving Englishman and a practical Czech girl trying to
perfect her English. When they get more intimate, they find out that they are further apart than ever,
because understanding language does not necessarily mean understanding people. What a topic!
The central couple is complemented by an elderly landlady, whom all believe not to speak English (a
clever theatrical trick), but who eventually unveils her mysterious past, offering the hero an
unexpected alternative for his own life.
The congenial casualness of the easy-flowing dialogs is reflected in the acting of the two lead actors,
Christopher Cowley and Marketa Atanasova. Hana Frejkova in the well-written and dramatic part of
the landlady cannot hide her ample experience as a professional actress. The audiences have
been very responsive to the play, accepting it without bias.
A good command of English is preferable (eighty per cent of the dialog is in English), but is not
necessary to grasp the message of the play.
Frantisek Knopp
1996 Diner
In 1996, Hana Frejkova played one of the leading parts in A. R. Gurney's Diner , directed by Mary
Angiolillo.
Dobry vecernik wrote: The play is highly demanding on the actors. In the individual anecdote-like sketches, each of the five
actors appears in an absolutely different role – from children to old people. Alongside young generation
entrants star the accomplished actors Milos Vavra and Hana Frejkova.
1988 Oh, Great Buddha, Help Them!
From a review, Scene , 1988: ... Recently, one such sprout of the Prague theatre periphery burgeoned at the Delta Culture Centre ...
yielding fruit that I cannot help characterizing as a manifold and versatile FEAT ... I see the
versatility of it in how far-reaching its impact is. It is not just art; the way it came into being, its
very existence, its reverberations and its artistic message make it quite significant in terms of
practical production and economic issues, audience-artist sociological insight as well as political and
moral aspects.
From the play ... during the fatherly speeches of Klepl's Brother Ma, watching his kind smile that can
turn deadly serious in a twinkle, we get the distinct feeling that this concentration camp is indeed
special ... Apart from the thoroughly coherent Brother La, whom J. Sypal portrays as a rationally
fanatic “great theorist and practician,” there is also Brother Ta, played by D. Matasek, whose poker
face is unfathomable, making the comrades give in to the intrigues easily.
In the absence of longer sections, the characters of the prisoners do not give much room for the actors
to ‘show off'; everybody is on stage most of the time, but the scenes as such are very short. H.
Frejkova, however, is remarkable in her role, which is full of contradictions, combining two
characters from the original text – the mother with a child and the primitive, animal-like
Tub. Frejkova is excellent in both parts. Her songs are endowed with irresistible humour
, so needed to lighten the load of the play; as Tub, she paints a picture of an inhuman person
perfectly fitting the inhuman system.
... Prague is hosting yet another theatre production that stands out both artistically and socially, as a
civic act. Kazantsev's OH, GREAT BUDDHA, HELP THEM! premières in Czechoslovakia under the
direction of Jan Uhrin.
