Black Magic
April 26th, 2007 by 
Bradley Denton
I have had enough of The Real World. The Real World is suffused with Ugliness.
I want beauty. I want magic.
So I wish that Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, weren’t so far away from where I’m sitting right now. I saw genuine, beautiful magic there.
It was in October 2005 at a place called the Image Theatre.
The Image Theatre is a “Black Light Theatre.” Black Light Theatre combines illusion, dance, pantomime, comedy, and eroticism in a mixture found only in Prague. Some have compared it to Cirque du Soleil — but I found both shows (“Black Box” and “Cabinet“) that Barb and I saw at the Image to be far more earthy and intimate than the Cirque shows I’ve seen.
Cirque du Soleil seems to say, “These are things beyond your experience that you could never do.” But Black Light Theatre says, “This experience is yours. This magic depends on you.”
Besides, the Czech Republic has other things to attract me as well. After four centuries of religious oppression under the Hapsburgs and four decades of secular oppression under the Communists (not to mention the horrors of the Nazi occupation), the Czechs have pretty much had it with authoritarian jerks of all stripes. They clearly disapprove of any people who shoot, blow up, torture, or otherwise hassle any other people.
After all, such bullying behavior stymies not only life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but also art, literature, science, sex, food, and beer – all areas in which the citizens of the Czech Republic strive for excellence.
I mean, damn. Let’s go.
And I’m telling you: That girl in the white leotard at the Image Theatre really was flying.
Posted in Barb, Brad, Dance, Fantasy, Food, History, Politics, Religion, Science | 
5 Comments »
April 27th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I like Cirque du Soleil, so when a diffrent version of it hit town i was glad to get to go. They did the same stuff as the Cirque shows i had seen on tv, but half way throught they did a black light theater piece. Sadly the group i was with didn’t seem to get what it was. But i loved it. a girl was steping on to bars of light and floating in the middle of the air. loved it. i would like to see more of that some time
April 27th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I traveled over to the website and I was enthralled and captivated with the pictures. The human body and mind appear limitless in this context.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Cool pictures!
April 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Great site. I want very badly to go to Prague. There’s all that silliness about vacation time and money, but I would love to go. Prague used to be one of the least expensive cities in Europe. Is it still?
I also really like Cirque du Soleil, but they can get rather…fey. It’s beautiful, but not often humorous. This seems witty.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Of all the cities I’ve visited, there are only three where I’ve truly felt At Home: Lawrence, KS; Austin, TX; and Prague, CZ.
Prague IS still less expensive to visit than, say, Rome, London, or Paris. (The food and beer, in particular, are both quite cheap and quite wonderful. As I’ve said elsewhere, I think I could even give up Tex-Mex so long as I had access to Czech goulash and dumplings.)
But Prague is catching up, price-wise (especially on hotel rates). Folks who visited within five years of the Velvet Revolution tell me that everything was dirt cheap then. Now, it’s reasonable at best.
The current weakness of the dollar will have some effect, too. When Barb and I were there in October 2005, a buck was worth about 24 crowns. Now, it’s just over 20. (The Czech Republic joined the EU a few years ago, but they won’t be switching to the Euro for a while yet.)
It’s still one of the best deals in Europe, though. And since Prague wasn’t bombed in WWII, a lot of 16th- and 17th-Century (and older) buildings are still there. Parts of the Castle date from the First Millenium.
A beautiful place, to say the least.