MODEL XXL MODELKA XXL
A one-woman show about dreams, diets
and the right to feel at home in your own body.
“Fuck those XS bitches.”
Venda Kobližková | Model XXL
About the production
Venda Koblížková has dreamed of becoming a model since childhood. At twelve, she seemed well on her way. Then came another twenty years, roughly thirty-five kilos, and an endless succession of diets, yo-yo effects and merciless encounters with the mirror.
When she enters the Miss XXL competition and actually makes it to the final, she sits down in front of the camera to record her finalist profile. Instead of a polished fashion presentation, however, she unleashes a disarmingly funny torrent of memories, romantic mishaps, insecurities and gags.
A full-bodied one-woman show that uses humour to explore self-image, society’s standards of beauty and the right to feel at home in your own body. Because Venda does not want to be smaller. She wants equal rights for her thighs and her backside.
The world of the production
Behind every model lies far more than dresses and lights — space, rhythm, transformation, precision and the courage to let the audience into the very heart of her world.
Production
MODEL XXL was conceived from the outset as a theatrical fashion show. The stage transformed into a catwalk extending three metres into the audience, drawing spectators directly into Venda’s world.
Scenography
Venda’s living room dominated the black stage: a large wardrobe evoking her “thunder thighs”, a refrigerator, an exercise bike and an enormous portrait of Venda posing seductively on a sofa, styled after the iconic drawing scene in Titanic.
Costumes
The costume concept centred on the transformation of a single woman. A dressing gown gave way to elegant lingerie, a striking pink dress and a blue costume for belly dancing. Each change revealed a different side of Venda.
Direction
The direction blended spoken theatre, stand-up, a fashion show and direct interaction with the audience. The catwalk became a place of confidence and profound vulnerability — a space where Venda could shine while revealing her innermost self.
Lighting design
The lighting design used dynamic moving lights and the energy of a major international beauty pageant. In intimate moments, however, it deliberately drew the stage into darkness, allowing Venda’s deepest truth to come through.
Gallery
Moments beneath the spotlights, steps along the catwalk and instances when theatre transformed into a fashion show of life itself.
Archival photographs from the production capture the light, space, transformations and moments in which Venda became the model of her own story.
THE COMPANY
The people who gave Venda’s story a face, movement,
music and the courage to step onto a catwalk of her own.
Creative Team
Otto Weiss
Cast
Behind the Stage
Karel Dlouhý, Václav Matějka
One woman. One stage. Dozens of transformations and an entire team that helped her step onto the catwalk of her own story.
PRESS KIT
From the first fashion sketches and costume designs
to the finished stage world.
The poster, fashion inspirations and production designs together trace the journey from the first idea to the premiere. They document the creative process through which an ordinary story was transformed into a theatrical fashion show with a visual language of its own.
Every woman... deserves to shine.
Not every woman walks a fashion runway.
The most important steps begin the moment
you stop running away from yourself.
That is when you truly begin to shine.
Now... shine.
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