The stories from Prague's Laichter House will be presented by the Pomezí theatre right in it

Prague – The performance Mapa ticha by the Prague theater Pomezí will portray the stories of nine characters from Laichter's house. The immersive production, in which the audience is part of the story, will take place directly in the house located in Prague's Vinohrady, designed by architect Jan Kotěra. The premiere will be held on June 10. The Memory of the Nation has prepared a workshop called Books in the Hands of the People in the house, aimed at the public and secondary schools. Lucie Volejníčková for Pomezí and Michaela Szkála for Memory of the Nation informed ČTK about this.

Kotěra designed the house near Prague's Riegrovy Sady for Jan Laichter as a residence with a publishing house. Laichter's publishing house existed there until 1949. The performance Mapa ticha will guide visitors, according to Volejníčková, through the richly decorated staircase hall, historical and contemporarily reconstructed spaces from the attic to the cellar.

The ideas of the Pomezí theater and Memory of the Nation were supported by Štěpán Lars Laichter from the Laichter's House Foundation. The foundation organizes book launches, author readings, discussions, and cultural events there. "We are revitalizing historic spaces that suffered great damage both under the previous regime and in the early 90s. Today they are becoming again a space for independent culture and for the meeting of people who love literature," Laichter said.

According to director Lukáš Brychta, the production is more based on atmosphere than on the actual history of Laichter's house. "It is a place with a rich history, infused with a multitude of stories, books are omnipresent here. We decided to create our own world, in which they are even vitally important," Brychta stated regarding the new production of the Pomezí theater.

Workshop participants from Memory of the Nation will find themselves in the year 1949. "The authentic environment is not just a backdrop, but becomes a natural part of the entire experience," said Dominika Kopčiková, who oversees education at the institution. Workshop participants will work in groups with original artifacts in different roles. They are to type on typewriters, black out forbidden words, or try to sneak a quote from Masaryk into a magazine. Finally, according to Memory of the Nation, they will discover what fate awaits them and their work.

The protected Laichter's house is considered to be a unique representative of the type of large family houses, as a combination of a home for the owner’s family and a tenement house. The central space consists of a staircase hall, which was decorated with paintings by František Kysela. As one of the first at the house, Kotěra used exposed steel construction as an aesthetic value in 1908. Thus, he fulfilled his principles of minimizing decoration and enhancing the purpose of the building.