Bedřich Smetana’s My Country is an enchanting piece of music. As soon as the first tones of the symphonic work ring out, so many of us are filled with emotion, ephemeral beauty and perhaps even a sense of national pride. No Czech patriot can confuse its second poem, The Moldau, for anything else.

Perhaps you can remember the first time you ever heard this gem. Was it at school? On the radio? In the car? At a concert hall? Not at the theatre, that much is clear. Indeed, as we have discovered, this work has never been put on stage in its entirety.

The creative team behind the dance-and-music show The Jungle Book has teamed up with other artists in order to make this happen for a wonderful first time. The first encounter with My Country, a masterpiece of Czech classical music, is about to take place at the Azyl78 big top, in a romantic rather than philharmonic environment.

The production of My Country will be a joint venture by several creative individuals. Which way will their paths take them? What shared experiences, and what unique individual moments does their pilgrimage throughout this exquisite musical territory hold for them?

Matěj Forman and his team of close collaborators will create the general visual style and the image of the landscape. He will direct some of the symphonic poems and meet other storytellers on the way.

Marko Ivanović’s remarkable talent will bring the musical wealth of a symphonic orchestra from the concert hall to the circus tent. Janek Jirků will be inviting the audience for a walk across select poems in his attempt to find puppet-theatre and visual-art language where so far “only” the score has sufficed.

Štěpán Pechar as the chief choreographer of the project is going to capture in motion rather than words some of the feelings of a wanderer through the Czech countryside.

Anti Sodomková, with her famous visual creativity, will not only enrich the show with costume design for our proud patriots, but also contribute to props and stage design.

Dancers, actors and puppeteers as the true “patriots” of the theatre will provide My Country with their talent and undying willingness to collaborate. The show will feature members of ensembles such as Dekkadancers and Holektiv, musicians from the Czech Philharmonic, and last but not least, artists from the popular improvisation collective Us Boys Who Go Out Together.

The show is suitable for lovers of music, dance, improvisation, puppets, visual art and spectacular theatre of any age.