Mont St Gumboot

Mont Silent Gumboot is the highest mountain range on Great Labuan Island. In its centre is Mount Wellington, an active volcano whose pipe keeps eructing inextinguishable imagination lava into the sky. The total of six locals living here (three of whom earn their livelihood by fishing for sounds and lights) keep busy by grazing their own ideas on the round surface the size of a child’s bedroom. If an idea escapes from the bucket or the net, there’s nothing one can do. A short period of Silence begins. Silence is beautiful. In Silence, a flight of stars and pineapples fall over the island and its inhabitants are anxious to see the little newcomers, who will join the bigger ones as they disembark right before Jinglepicking. All the inhabitants of Mont St Gumboot are friendly and loony; they don’t do double standards; they’re no cry wolves; and most importantly, they won’t judge you – or themselves.

Co-created by director Jiří Ondra, scenographer Veronika Svobodová, musician Marek Doubrava, and dramaturg Barbora Kamenická Pokorná, this is the first ever production of Drak Theatre that is aimed at children from six months of age and their grownups. The non-narrative production, loosely inspired by art and graphic poetry, absurdist, surrealist, Dadaist, art brut, nonsense and nursery rhymes, offers an opportunity for a first encounter with art and a unique opportunity to sensitively introduce babies to the world of theatrical imagination alongside their loved ones. The production follows the worldwide trend of Theatre for Early Years, which has been gaining popularity in the Czech Republic in recent years and is becoming a popular way for families to spend time together with their toddlers.

In the media:

„I have a message for anyone thinking of going to the theatre with children this young. I definitely recommend it, and you can start e.g. with a production of Mont St Gumboot. By choosing a theatrical form that does not underestimate the youngest audience, like the creators from Hradec, you can offer a theatrical experience not only to children. I believe that even for parents, linked with such young children every day, a theatre production can be a welcome disruption to their daily routine.”

Adéla Kalusová, It is never too early to go to the theatre, a Drak production shows, 12.3.2024, art.ceskatelevize.cz