In 356 BC, a man called Herostratos allegedly set fire to the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. He did so for the sole purpose of making history forever. And apparently, he succeeded. He gave rise to the term herostratism, which in psychology refers to the pathological desire to become famous at any cost. And how would Herostratos do today, in the age of social networks? Would he stream his act online on Instagram? Or would he have chosen Snapchat? Or TikTok? How many likes would he collect? And would he be satisfied with the final score? In any case, we seem to be living in an age that favours herostratism in its many forms more than any previous one...

This production of #Burn #IAmHere #Herostratos is aimed at a teenage audience. It takes place in the virtual world of the internet and computer games, an environment that is very close to today's teenagers. The creative team from Hradec Králové - author Tomáš Jarkovský and director Jakub Vašíček - has signed a number of award-winning titles for teenagers in a number of Czech theatres. Together with designer Kamil Bělohlávek, they chose the genre of live cinema for the production, which combines theatre and film. The actors work live with a "green screen" (green background) and use a chroma keying technique combined with traditional puppetry techniques to create unique theatre-film content right in front of the audience.

Photos: Roman Dobeš