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Around Town

Fyodor follies

By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 4th, 2007 issue

Divadlo Husa na provázdu, or “Goose on a String Theater,” is one of those theater companies that often crops up in books and magazine articles as representative of Czech theater’s genius.

Though this touted “genius” of Czech stage work often seems overstated (if not absent) in many of Prague’s more famous theaters, the Brno-based Husa troupe is the real thing. Under the direction of artistic director Vladimír Morávek (one of the wunderkinder of Czech drama, along with J.A. Pitinský and the late Petr Lébl), the company has become a necessary stop for anyone interested in this country’s theater. And, occasionally, you don’t even have to schlep to Brno to see its work.

Last week, Husa set up shop at Archa Theatre for a four-day Prague showcase. If there was any doubt that this is a company demanding attention, Morávek’s staging of The Blue Bird won the argument. Taking Maurice Maeterlinck’s creaking symbolist fantasia and transforming it into a startling piece of performance art is no small achievement, and there were moments in Morávek’s production that managed to produce that other overworked term in theater criticism, “stage magic.”

Leading an audience through Maeterlinck’s ominously enchanted forest and the kingdom of unborn babies is one thing. Creating a stage mosaic out of Dostoyevsky’s four great novels is something entirely different.

The company’s 12-hour Dostoyevsky marathon last Saturday could easily hold its own against Peter Brook’s famous nine-hour production of The Mahabharata or the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 10-hour Nicholas Nickleby. In fact, Morávek’s structuring of the event was even riskier for being nonlinear.

Melding Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Devils and The Brothers Karamazov in a performance sounds like a recipe for hubris, and yet Morávek pulled it off stunningly. The first part of Crime and Punishment was followed by the first part of The Idiot, which led back to the final part of Crime before switching into the first part of The Devils.

Thanks to a crack company of actors (perhaps the republic’s best ensemble), one began to see parallels and foreshadowings between the various characters. Petr Jeništa’s haunted and dangerous Raskolnikov in Crime, Jiří Vyorálek’s childishly innocent Prince Myshkin in The Idiot and Jan Budař’s feral libertine, Stavrogin, in The Devils brought startling new readings to the three Karamazov brothers, which the three actors eventually became. With even more seeming recklessness, Morávek had each of the brothers assume the character of their impossible father. Theater doesn’t get much better than this.

The unflagging energy of the ensemble (Gabriela Štefanová, Simona Peková, Michal Bumbálek, Tomaš Sýkora, and Vladimír Hauser to name just a few) kept the packed house equally engaged for this half-day spectacle. During the breaks between the production’s eight acts, animated conversations erupted in the foyer, while in Archa’s smaller theater audience members were treated to a Steppe’s snack of borscht (what else?), along with some hearty dark bread and red wine.

Seeing a group of actors working as a well-oiled troupe is always a pleasure for its rarity. Even Husa’s curtain calls were pulled off with panache, something that’s seldom seen in Prague, where actors scramble to line the stage apron for the interminable applauding, methodically nodding their thanks before colliding with one another toward the exit. But then Morávek’s corps obviously has undergone such rigorous physical and vocal training that the members can’t help but make their bows as stylish and adroit as their acting.

As for these interwoven novels of Dostoyevsky’s — all of which share the human struggle between the belief in a god or the void (and this, appropriately, a week before Easter) — Husa managed, like some brilliant literature professor, to make us see the writer’s entire work in a new light. Genius? Absolutely.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com

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