Les Misérables
City Theatre Brno - Mestske Divadlo Brno (Czech Republic)
Opening: 09 Januar 2009
Book and Lyrics by Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Director: Stanislav Mosa
Karla Hofmannová, 15 February 2009:
“The individual images are stunning. Its author is the German stage designer Christoph Weyers. Contrasting with heavy dark backgrounds are the three-dimensional backdrops that change with incredible speed. The inventiveness of each scene become the crowning glory of the play.”
David Kroča,1. April 2009:
“(...) The original wooden decoration of the London production is replaced in Brno by the completely new set by Christoph Weyers. This acclaimed German set designer created a realistic-looking film set, effectively punctuated with the rear projection, making each image a feast for the eyes. (...)”
Luboš Mareček, 10 April 2009:
“(...) This rumbling tale of barricades can change very inattentively into an unbearable package of sweetened romance. The longest-performed musical in the history of musical theatre nevertheless has a sense of the measure of pathos as well as sentiment in its Brno form. Moša is paradoxically helped in this by the naturalistic décor of the German stage designer Christoph Weyers. He knows that the spectator magic lies in a similar historical fresco of the almost realistic depiction of the time settings. On stage, a ‘real’ quarry thus grows up, or, in effective abbreviation, the ‘real’ barricades from the stormy July of 1830.(...)"
Ondřej Doubrava, 1 March 2009:
“(...) The barricades in Christoph Weyers' stage design (made in the Barrandov Studios in Prague) stand so realistically in the space that one is fully involved psychologically and physically in the barricade fight. Admirers will surely also enjoy the cute inn of the Thénardier couple in the style of "Sweeney Todd". They are also sure to be thrilled when they roam the Paris canals. It all looks excellent, no corners are cut!”
Peter Stoličný, 16 February 2009:
“(...) On the stage of the German scenographer Christoph Weyers there is a lot of wonder to be seen as to what is technically feasible on a modern music stage nowadays. He knows exactly what he is doing! It is simple to lower the backdrops from above, to push the largest ones from the sides, to play with lights over the rapidly lowering horizons of varying transparency, to open and close side openings quietly and unobtrusively, to raise different parts of the floor - ‘the boards that represent the world’ are quite very virtual boards here, ones that allow one to have the most varied illusions. And theatre, after all, is the world of illusions. (...)”
Jana Machalická, 16 February 2009:
(...) again and again one is fascinated by the wealth of ideas in Christoph Weyers' pictures, which catapult one so relentlessly into the early days of the 19th century. They have perfect technique at their disposal, yet they follow the path of simple, convincing effect, and so, out of “nothing”, dazzling images emerge on stage. The basis of the pictorial solution is a certain rawness of the environment, which returns again and again in the most diverse variations. There are raw wooden boards, gloomy walls - the poetic atmosphere is also formed by appropriate chiaroscuro. (...)”