musical based on Noah Gordon's bestseller RANHOJIČ, Czech premiere
In November 2021, the American writer Noah Gordon died at the age of 95. He entered the history of world literature primarily with his trilogy The Cole Dynasty, which deals with the history of medicine in great detail and knowledge. The most famous is probably the very first volume, the novel in our country known as Ranhojič from 1987 (it was followed by free sequels The Shaman (1992) and The Doctor (1995)). According to Ranhojic, a globally successful German film starring Tom Payne and Ben Kingsley was also shot in 2013.
The title character of this extraordinary story is Rob Cole, an English Christian boy who, in the harsh conditions of the 11th century, manages to travel across Europe to the Far East to the city of Isfahan to learn the art of medicine. For him, the motivation for this unusual decision are experiences from his early childhood, when he lost both his mother and other loved ones due to insufficient knowledge about the human body. He first meets a blacksmith who initiates him into a primitive method of healing, but thanks to which he soon understands that learning the real medical trade is more important than making more money. On his long and dangerous journey in search of knowledge, on which he has to pass himself off as a Jew in a hostile environment, he finds not only the desired learning, but also the love of his life.
The book became an inspiration for the Spanish authors, who premiered the musical El Médico in 2018 at the Nuevo Apolo Theater in Madrid. The idea to process this material for musical theater originated in the head of music composer Iván Macías, who together with producer Pablo Martínez contacted Michael Gordon, the writer's son and agent. He was so enthusiastic after listening to the first few music samples that he decided to connect the authors directly with his father. Macías' music immediately convinced him too, and therefore he granted permission to turn his novel into a musical. The musical became an instant hit in Spain and we are happy to be able to present it to our audience in the Czech premiere.
