Petr Šesták
101 Ways to Become Extinct
To head up snow-covered Mount Fuji – in trainers. To take a selfie – with a bear. To clean a chimney – with a hand grenade. To do yoga – on a runway. A festival of recklessness and a scientific lecture in one. A gala evening celebrating those who have most inventively defied the instinct of self-preservation. And it might even be your turn! Don’t believe it? The Darwin Award, ironically given to ‘those who have removed themselves from the human gene pool in an exceptionally foolish way’, can, after all, be placed on the shelf by all of us (of course, postmortem). Not even the most self-viral laughter at someone else’s foolishness can drown out today’s increasingly urgent question – could our species wipe itself out not just through stupidity, but through its own intelligence as well?
After all, what else it means to fight for voting rights for all – and then give your vote to right-wing proponents of the ‘law of the strongest’. To develop the capacities of the brain and free will over millions of years – and then hand them over to the market. To develop technology – that will eventually replace us. The transition of life from organic to inorganic form as a matter of natural selection? And what would Darwin himself have said about that?
The production, inspired by the phenomenon of the Darwin Awards, the work of evolutionary theory pioneer Charles Darwin, and the way contemporary extremist movements appropriate him, marks the second collaboration of Divadlo Husa na provázku with the acclaimed prose writer Petr Šesták, following last year’s hit Someday the Kids Will Thank Us. In the 2025/26 season, he will make his debut as a playwright on the Divadlo Husa na provázku stage and, in an explosive collaboration with resident director Anna Davidová, will fearlessly explore the vulnerability of our species.
Anna Davidová (b. 1984), thanks to her dreamy directorial poetics and vibrant imagery, has become one of the most prominent directing talents of the younger generation. As a freelance director and, from 2019 to 2021, also as artistic director, she made a significant contribution to the contemporary shape of the theatre at Zelný trh, creating several productions at Divadlo Husa na provázku enthusiastically received by both critics and audiences. She received the Theatre Critics’ Award in the Talent of the Year category. In the 2024/25 season, she returned to Divadlo Husa na provázku as resident director.
Petr Šesták (b. 1981) is the author of the novelistic pamphlet Vyhoření, nominated for the 2023 Magnesia Litera Award, and staged at Divadlo Husa na provázku under the title Someday the Kids Will Thank Us. His previous, genre-spanning works have also been acclaimed: the poetic-philosophical travelogue Kočovná galerie (2014), the short story collection Štvanice (2015), the novel Kontinuita parku (2021), and the children’s book Cesta je pes (2023). He lived for two years in a camper van, travelling across Europe with a mobile photography exhibition. He currently lives mainly in Prague. He runs analogue photo booths and organises cultural events in Mikulov, South Moravia. The text Darwin & co., written for the Divadlo Husa na provázku ensemble, is his debut as a playwright.
