Jiří Reidinger

* 1961

  • "I remember the most disgusting, horrible experience when they wanted us to play with Declaunization somewhere in Italy, and some people came from Pragokoncert, and as was well known, they usually took 50% of the fees automatically, so they mostly allowed everything. Either someone had to go there with the group, as it used to be, a little STB member, but maybe no one would come with us. But the rehearsals were, we only had to play the whole show for five people. It was a two-hour duck show, very complicated, jumps, acrobatics, very complicated performances. And now I remember that we played it for them at Chmelnice, and of course they never laughed, they even showed Lenka [Machoninova] during that play, because the arrogance of power was crazy, some pornographic photos, just such a provocation. Lenka as a clown: 'Please, sir, don't you want the rose here? You know, I'll give it to you. 'So he showed her there, don't you want to? Porno .A pornographic photo. And she said, 'That's something so terrible.' We played, a terrible show, it was terribly played, long, it was terribly tiring, and they said. "And please, will you play it in Czech in that Italy?" I say, "No, we have rehearsed that in Italian, of course." Then you have to play it all in Italian again. "

  • "The worst was [Palach's] week. They were there, of course, they always outdid us somehow... But I remember this week, it was every day, I don't know, those six days, it was maybe on the fourth day... I remember they chased us, they chased us with the white batons, one of the policemen tried to hit a pregnant woman and she fell... I yelled at him, are you crazy? She's pregnant! And of course, they attacked me, five of them, they started to hit me without any sense, as I had those "Lennon" glasses they luckily felt down. And some lady said - he lost his glasses, what are you doing to him? They took me, well, they become scared, when civilians see what they are doing, they become... a little calmer, they said something, they took him into Anton (police car) or let me go... I don't remember. My back was completely blue, then we met with Sylvia Krobova at Olga Havlova's place. But in the end it did not deter me and I went there again the next day, because there were meetings and it was important to just be there so the crowd becomes "thicker". I know I described somewhere, that we recognised each other by being wet..."

  • It was easy, I think he did it so many times, but it's nice here that it was in the eighty-eighth year. Andrej, Andrej Krob, came to see me because we were testing Kvak and Žbluňek with Lenka [Machoninová] with him and he said: "Would it not be possible, we are looking for .... Vasek... at you." Ok, ok, so I will go there and he here, of course. We organized everything “as a conspiration”.It was easy for us to take him to Elektrárenská, he would be there for four nights, they might not come there, and then he would go out and finally go to Václavák and say 'Hello' there before they arrest him. It was clear that he would be arrested anyway. Well, he really went there, it was a conspiracy, because he was somewhere in the Realistic Theatre, I got a car, 1203, that we will secretly ... him there... He of course wanted to have a chat with the actresses, so we had to take him with a taxi, the car had to be cancelled. There we baked a rabbit, which I had from Šumava. And he said, 'The baking, that's beautiful.' So we talked there until night, which was really nice. Unfortunately, I was unable to turn on my gas heater and as it was the end of October was, I was saying to myself, 'There's no spark, so I'll go see Andrej and he'll come here tomorrow to fix it somehow.' But it was not freezing badly, but [Havel] was very sensitive, so I was saying to myself, Jesus, I had to give him some extra blankets, it was upstairs he slept on a small platform. It was recorded like that in the video journal, it was already being recorded independently once a month, so that people can see for themselves how the dissidents looked like. They were not allowed to be in television, they did not know them, not even Vaclav Havel, so they started to record such videocassettes. "

  • "My dad, of course, at the time — they were making napkins and some toilet paper, big rolls, there in the paper mills. They wrote Saldati idite damoj on the napkins when the Russians came, they printed it and distributed it. But they euphoria lasted for a while and after that I know we looked under the sofa and the napkins were hidden there but we were not allowed to talk about it. Father, as he was so scared, that something bad can happen to three of us, his sons, that we would not be allowed to study or something, despite being from a strictly Catholic family decided to join the Communist Party. He never really participated, but he had this feeling... I know he regretted it afterwards. When I was writing to samizdat in 1980s and instead of money the always gave me books- from Skvorecki, Havel or Solzhenicyn- The Gulag Archipelago, he was really happy to be able to read it. My mother wasn't happy, she wanted to burn those books. So it was apparent that this honesty stayed in him, that he joined the communists only out of fear. There was Svazarm etc..."

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Help should be self-evident and selfless

Jiří Reidinger 1987, historical photography
Jiří Reidinger 1987, historical photography
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Jiří Reidinger was born on May 6, 1961 in Loučovice in Šumava. His parents Josef and Jiřina Reidinger worked in the Loučovice paper mills and tried to adapt to political conditions so that their three sons had no problems. His mother, in particular, had no understanding of Jiří‘s artistic leanings, and after her son left for Prague, she often did not even want to associate with him. After graduating from the Secondary Industrial School of Mechanical Engineering in České Budějovice, Jiří Reidinger went to Prague to the People‘s Conservatory, majoring in pantomime. He visited it at work, so he looked for various auxiliary jobs, for which it was possible to get accommodation. From 1980 to 1982 he also attended Ctibor Turba‘s courses at the AMU Puppet Department; he then collaborated with him for many years after the Velvet Revolution. A major turning point in his life was his involvement in state circuses, especially a one-year trip with the Prague circus in Central Asia and Siberia, where he performed as a clown Bilbo. This earned him respect and many theatrical opportunities upon his return. He also met Andrej Krob, Václav Havel and other Chartists; he married Andrej Krob‘s daughter Sylvia Krobová. He started contributing to the samizdat press, helping to print Infoch in his apartment. He went to demonstrations regularly, trying to be at all major events and help; he signed and helped spread the petitions for the release of Václav Havel, Magor and the Petition „Nekolik vet“. On the evening of November 17, 1989, he performed the theatrical performance of the Ark of Fools in Stodůlky. A day later, he read the artists‘ statements in the theatre and in the following days he became involved in revolutionary events. Since the beginning of the 1990s, he has stood on the stage of a number of Prague theatres. He began teaching acrobatics and founded the family theatre Bilbo Compagnie, with which he and his wife travelled many countries around the world. He also writes. At the time of filming, he lived with his wife in Nová Ves pod Pleší.