How it’s New York: Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre is a particularly NY type of theatre: downtown, multicultural, impertinent.
How it’s Irish: Czechs during the period Jaroslav Hašek was writing were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and “dumb resistance” is something Irish people, colonized by the English, will recognize.
How appropriate, and how delightful, for Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (CAMT) to take on a production of Jaroslav Hasek’s unfinished masterpiece The Good Soldier Švejk, (pronounced Shvayk), published 1921-1923, and an anti-war novel that many people say heavily influenced Joseph Heller’s anti-war novel Catch 22 with its collection of absurdities.
Which is not to say there is not a good deal of plain realism in Hašek’s tale, as anybody who’s ever worked with Czechs will know. I vividly remember working on a play in the Czech Republic in 1999 with a composer who agreed to all my notes… then did what he wanted to. This kind of thing is what’s meant by “dumb resistance,” in which one never overtly says no at all — but somehow never does what has been asked of one. Theater for the New City, which produced the show, tells us that this kind of resistance is what contemporary Russian soldiers fear in Ukraine.
CAMT is led by Czech émigré Vít Horejš, who founded the company in 1990. The company uses live actors and puppets of all different sizes, including regular items impressed into serving as puppets: a mop here, a helmet there. It’s always inventive, and sometimes thrilling. This production had too short a run: closing Feb. 18, but with luck it will return.
The adaptation is in many ways perfection, complete with modern-sounding language and wordplay. It’s endless inventive, with some haunting imagery too.
There is a playfulness about the entire show that fits perfectly with the tone of Hašek’s book. The set mostly consist of boxes shaped uncomfortably like coffins; these turn into benches and doors as needed (a running joke is people not being able to fit through the opening of one of these “doors” without turning sideways). Multiple people play Švejk, and we can tell who is playing him in any given scene by who is wearing his helmet and carrying the Švejk puppet. (Oddly, the Švejk puppet does not look like the famous illustrations of Josef Lada, but of a rather more sinister soldier.)
As we watch, Švejk gets himself arrested while proclaiming he cannot WAIT to become cannon fodder for WWI. He says yes, enthusiastically, to everything, and agrees that he is an idiot.
Yet somehow it’s always his bosses that end up in trouble — you know, a dog Švejk stole and gave as a gift belonged to a higher up. Or he pulls an alarm on a train, for some good reason, and then on his way back to the front…. somehow wanders far away from it.
Is he really an idiot? I am! he insists.
Hmmm.
And it’s on that front that the play falters. Only Horejš himself, when it is his turn to pla really has the deadpan maybe I do, maybe I don’t Czech picture of dumb resistance down: the rest of his company, including Michelle Beshaw, Deborah Beshaw-Farrell, Theresa Linnihan (who also designed the hilarious oversized costumes), Sammy Rivas, Rocco George, Gage Morgan, and Ben Watts, tend to mug and milk a moment. Watching a simple-minded guy beat the system is just not nearly so interesting as watching someone who might just be pretending to be stupid — think Chaplin —beat the system. It only works as satire if we’re in on it.
Horejs has many physical comic moments built in, but they do not feel natural. He’s a better performer and conceptualizer than director, for this show.
But what conceptions. When Švejk is lost in the storm Horejš has members of the cast come out and BE the storm, in sheets representing wind and snow.
It literally takes your breath away.
CAMTGood Soldier švejk and His Fortunes in the First World War
Adapted and Directed by Vít Horejš
Presented by Theatre for the New City
Performed by Czechsolovak-American Marionette Theatre
Feb. 1-18
