Social & External
The people behind it
Vladimír Šmeral
Radoslav Brzobohatý
Petr Haničinec
Ladislav Boháč
Zdeněk Štěpánek
Jaroslav Zátka
Vladimír Hlavatý
Jiří Bruder
A portrait of the inventor of the letterpress, who was a key figure in the history of mankind, but also an enthusiastic inventor, a daring businessman, a tenacious troublemaker: the life of Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-68).
In Madrid at the time of the Inquisition, the monk Ambrosio is renowned for his faith and his strength of will, a saint in the eyes of the populace. But when he discovers the beautiful Matilda hidden in his own monastery, all his repressed passions begin to show themselves, and he is soon using the girl, and her powers, in his lust for more innocent prey.
Ukraine. The end of the XV century. All gunpowder made in factories suddenly disappears. The company of cossacks led by Maksym Trytuz comes together to find one of the transports that carries gunpowder to the Zaporozhian Sich.
Four erotic tales from various historical eras. The first, 'The Tide', is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. 'Therese Philosophe' is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. 'Erzsebet Bathory' is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while 'Lucrezia Borgia' concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.
A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights.
December 1994. On Saturday 24th, four GIA terrorists hijack an Air France A300 Airbus, bound for Paris, with 227 passengers on board, at the Algiers airport.
England, 11th century. William the Conqueror (ca. 1027-1087) wins the Battle of Hastings (1066), changing the shape of medieval Europe and the course of English history. An account of the life of the extraordinary Norman warrior who became king.
Paris, 1857. While on trial for moral outrage, French writer G. Flaubert tells the court and the audience the true story of the heroine of his novel Madame Bovary, a sensitive but capricious woman whose desperate efforts to overcome the bourgeois conventions of a dull, provincial life led her family first to ruin and disrepute and finally to the abyss of tragedy.
The play about the life of Eliška, the last of the Přemyslid dynasty, follows ten years of her life journey from the moment of her marriage to John of Luxembourg to her rejection by the king in 1320.
The historical television play was written based on Vančura's Pictures from the History of the Czech Nation and takes place against the backdrop of the European situation at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Přemysl Otakar I., father of Agnes of Přemyslid, sought recognition of the Czech lands as a hereditary kingdom. And what about his love and fickleness? The story will answer this, in which poetry and truth diverge only in the degree of emotional movements, in the tremors of souls, which lead to love as well as to hatred.
Wenceslas II, who already has adult children Eliška and Václav, refuses to marry the young Alžběta Rejčka. In the end, he succumbs to the insistence of Abbot Konrád. The queen brings him Poland as a dowry, and Wenceslas II thus expands his empire. He still lives in the shadow of his great father, Přemysl Otakar II, and his lords reproach him for his weakness and inability to fight. Wenceslas is truly afraid of the moment when he will have to lead an army into the field and prefers to settle disputes diplomatically. His fencing teacher Hynek of Dubá and his mistress Anežka know about the king's weakness, and Václav seeks their company rather than his young wife. However, Rejčka admires the king and trusts him with the charm of a young girl. The enemy invades the country and advances quickly. It is necessary to confront him in the field, but the king hesitates and postpones the decision.
A section of the life of George of Poděbrady from his coronation to his death (1458–1471), creating a portrait of a remarkable monarch whose name shone as a symbol of Czech statehood, as a symbol of a victorious military leader and a prudent statesman; a powerful, complex and contradictory personality in the midst of a very dramatic fifteenth century. During thirteen years of independent rule, he wanted to defend with all his might what had been won by the Hussites; he wanted to defend it even in a time and environment that, on the contrary, wanted to settle accounts with the Hussites. It was during this tense time that Poděbrady's idea of creating an association of monarchs who would resolve conflicts through agreements and treaties, and not through war, arose. Even as a father, he made a sacrifice for his beloved country when he did not hand over the crown of the Czech king to his son, but to the Polish king Vladislav, the "Prince of Peace".
The life story of Blessed Zdislava of Lemberk, about whom legends rather than sparse historical references tell us that she was a deeply religious woman with healing powers who devoted herself entirely to the humble service of her sick and suffering neighbors.
September 2, 476 A.D.: Only two days before the Ostrogoth Foederati finally sack the City of Rome in the early morning hours of September 4th. When Ostrogoth Chieftain, and the Leader of the Foederati, Odoacer finally takes over the City that same day, and Ends the Empire, by the famous Act of Deposing of the Last Western Roman Caesar Romulus Augustulus. Hence with this famous/infamous act of deposition of the Emperor Augustulus, Odoacer officially ends the 1,300 years of Roman Power, thus giving way to the next 1,000 years of the Dark Ages.
The beloved American musical that brought us “The Impossible Dream” turns its lens on modern love and society, especially as brought to the Playhouse stage by director Mark Lamos in our award-winning 2018 production. In this play within a play, Cervantes has not yet finished his manuscript for Don Quixote—he sits in jail awaiting trial during the Spanish Inquisition. Fourteen actors portraying Cervantes and his fellow prisoners bring to life the great odyssey we all know of a questing knight tilting at windmills and battling for the love of the fair maiden Aldonza.
Paris, France, December 1946. Jenny Lamour, an ambitious cabaret singer, and Maurice, her extremely jealous pianist husband, become involved in the thorough investigation of the murder of a shady businessman, led by Antoine, a peculiar and methodical police inspector.
Alfie Byrne is a middle-aged bus conductor in Dublin in 1963. He would appear to live a life of quiet desperation: he's gay, but firmly closeted, and his sister is always trying to find him "the right girl". His passion is Oscar Wilde, his hobby is putting on amateur theatre productions in the local church hall. We follow him as he struggles with temptation, friendship, disapproval, and the conservative yet oddly lyrical world of Ireland in the early 1960s.
No Woman is allowed into Karlstejn Castle! Yet the enamoured Daniele Kolářová and the equally enamoured Jana Brejchová manage to spend one night in disguise in the Castle despite the strict royal ban.
Year 1100. Italy.The Northern lands are ruled by a German emperor: Fredrick aka "Barbarossa. His dream is to conquer also the lands in the Center and in the South so as to revive the Empire that was once of the one Charles Magno.But in the North a young man from Milan has formed an army of 900 young men coming from different cities: the "company of death". This young man's name is Alberto Da Giussano. His dream is to defeat the Emperor and to give back freedom to the Northern lands.
The story of fifteenth century Czech icon and warlord, Jan Zizka, who defeated armies of the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire.
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
Cast out by his father, young Ondrej joins the Order of the Teutonic Knights, where he is raised by strict monk Armin. After years of hardship, Ondrej escapes from the Order when he is wrongly punished, and sets out for his former home. Arriving to discover his father to be dead, Ondrej now not only assumes control of his father's properties, but seeks to marry his former stepmother.
Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, is named regent while the tyrant battles abroad. When the king returns, increasingly ill and paranoid, Katherine finds herself fighting for her own survival.
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.
The warmhearted story of Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. Stan deals with the difficult losses of family and friends all while helping to create the hydrogen bomb and the first computer.
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.
In 14th Century England, this tale of murder and mystery follows a fugitive priest who falls in with a troupe of actors. As they arrive in a small town, the actors encounter a woman being sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft and murder. Discarding the expected bible stories, the actors now stage a performance based on the crime. Through the performance of the play, they discover a mystery.
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Who is Jesus, and why does he impact all he meets? He is respected and reviled, emulated and accused, beloved, betrayed, and finally crucified. Yet that terrible fate would not be the end of the story.
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 605 B.C., Daniel is forced to serve the most powerful king in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. Faced with imminent death, Daniel proves himself a trusted Advisor and is placed among the king's wise men. Threatened by death at every turn Daniel never ceases to serve the king until he is forced to choose between serving the king or honoring God. With his life at stake, Daniel has nothing but his faith to stand between him and the lions' den.
