Kaffeeklatsch

(...) The troup Holektiv has introduced a light humorous show celebrating coffee and gossiping – Kaffeeklatsch. Though inspired by 19th century ladie´s coffee parties, the main role is attributed to modern technology – an automatic coffee machine hanging from the ceiling and referring thus to levitating divinity. And it is exactly such approach that the ladies in fluffy skirts apply towards it. The coffee machine becomes an idol that demands them to bend the knee and perform breaknecking poses to let it give away that miraculous brown drink. The show is rather mimic than acrobatic – beside one significant scene, where the girls shape a pyramid standing on each other´s shoulders to reflect the cups on the table in front of them, there are just a few acrobatic pieces which rather complete the main course. (...)The performers know their limits and are able to laugh about them as well, play with their imperfectness and pretend a lack of skills, which are basic atributes of clownery, as a spectator always likes to laugh at misfortune of others. Kaffeeklatsch is a direct parody of a well-known custom, even though we don´t meet for little coffees in our homes today but rather in coffeeshops. The performers have chosen a rewarding topic, neutral, yet offering a satiric interpretation. Their self-ironic approach is very likeable and this mimic trio will not fade out in the eye of spectator.

A trio of young ladies named Holektiv ranks among the most interesting disclosures of Czech non-verbal scene. (...) Connection of these three ladies is very happy, because by bringing together their ideas and specific dispositions, an original mixture of clownery, new circus, dance choreography and charming playfulness appears. (...) We see a kind of coffee ritual reminding a ritual session. Both these elements are worked out with preciously dosed humour and yet craft mastership as well. (...) A funny set design by Anežka Kalivodová is made of larger and smaller boxes, from which performers take out all sorts of things – coffee cups, a vase with a tulip and in the end a teapot. (...) The performers manage to be feminine, charming and peotic but are not affraid to put themselves down and show a variety of women´s vices. They know how to be quarrelsome, sly and tricky (one reatins the memory the scenes of discreet jumping ahead in the line for coffee and the transformation into hens clucking around in the yard).