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GULLIVER
Verdict: Prague's funny and romantic Gulliver
Edinburgh - Pleasance - August 02
Gulliver's shipwrecked and washed ashore to a hostile reception. Dragged before a
judge, he's found in possession of a subversive diary. He's thown into jail, and
eventually burned to death.
But that's just in the here and now. Gulliver's about a different world, the world of
mystery and dreams. In jail, Gulliver can't be chained, because in his mind he's
free to roam the globe, the sea, and the stars themselves. And death's no different,
it's a greater release, free even from the confines of the imagination.
This superb play from Ta Fantastika of Prague works perceptively on two levels. On one,
it's a delightful and riveting fantasy. On the other it's a solid indictment of
the Communist lash under which Prague cowered for half a century.
Jonathan Swift used precisely the same two approaches in 1726 to lampoon a different
order of repressive politics. It's upon his 'Captain Lemuel Gulliver - Travels into
several Remote Nations of the World', that this Gulliver, adapted by Pavel Marek
and Petr Kratochvil, is loosely based - and you can't help thinking the old boy
would have been delighted with the result..
We meet Gulliver tossed ashore by waves and dragged by his accusers to a midnight
court sadly familiar to the Iron Curtain's tragic and unsung victims. He's banged up in
a cell dripping with water, that's straight out of One Day in The Life Ivan Denisovitch,
Alexander Solzhenitsen's horrifying yet ultimately uplifting story of life in a Siberian
prison camp under Stalin's brutal dictatorship. Like Ivan, Gulliver (Pavel Marek Jnr
and Martin Kalous) rapidly escapes into his imagination, and we're straight into
another storm.
Gulliver lands on mountains which turn out to be the bottom of a gorgeous and
delightfully naked giantess (Lenka Cermáková). Gulliver stands on the palm of her
hand to be stroked (calling to mind the joke about the 12-inch pianist that sadly doesn't
survive metrication). Her podgy - and jealous - lover takes him away to a gambling
hall to juggle dice and do tricks for the crowd. Gulliver ends up in a bottle with a
friendly mouse, but escapes - into the nightdress of his huge female admirer.
Quite what happens next is left partly to the imagination, but they're both smiling
(not sure if that bit's in Swift).
It's another place, and Gulliver is enormous. He's at the court of a tiny emperor
whose dancer (Kristýna Nencevová) performs for him as the emperor's minute
servants use shovels to try and feed him - finally using a ladder to go down into
his stomach.
The production uses a gauze screen at the proscenium arch to allow actors to interact
with projected images, and the effects achieved are interesting. Black-light effects are
used (blacked-out actors and props against black backgrounds) to assist the special
effects necessary to handle the effects of giant and small scale. Tricksy at times, the
play retains a core of integrity, and humour.
Excellent performances include: - Gulliver - Pavel Marek Jnr and Martin Kalous.
Judge, Clown, Horse - Pavel Hejný. Prison officer, horse - Jakub Marek.
Army officer, clown, horse - Erik Rebernak. Woman, horse - Lenka Cermáková.
Moon-dweller - Kristýna Nencevová. Clown - Martin Kalous, Pavel Marek Jr.
Sound, lights, projection are by - Martin Bláha, Tomáš Krupka, Stansilav Grepl.
Stage and costume design - Richard Maška. Music - Ondrej Soukup. Lyrics -
Gabriela Osvaldová. Music editor - Tomáš Krupka.
Film clips - Pavel Marek. Editor, film special effects - Martin Bláha.
Set creation - David Lajbner, Jan Hartman. Technical assistance - Ladislav
Strejcovský. Adapted and directed by Pavel Marek and Petr Kratochvil.
Writer - Jonathan Swift. Producer - TA Fantastika Black Light Theatre Prague.
Company credits - Pavel Marek - Co-Owner and Artistic Director. Petr
Kratochvil - Co-Owner and Artistic Director. Jozef Bednárik - Director.
Gabriela Osvaldová - Lyricist. Emma Srncová - Set Designer and Painter.
Petr Hapka - Composer. Ondrej Soukup - Composer. Richard Maška -
Set Designer and Constructor. Julius Hirsch - Operations Director. Ivana
Marková - Financial Director. Jakub Marek - Company Manager.
Vojtech Hlavácek - Marketing Director. Tomáš Krupka - Sound Designer.
Martin Bláha - Light and Projection Designer. Erik Rebernak - Stage Manager.
Theatre has long been the forum in Prague for rebellion and the expression of
risky ideas - often with that dash of hilarity that British political satire sometimes
struggles to attain. This is a country that celebrated emancipation by the election of
a playwright - Vaclav Havel - as president. Gulliver continues the fine
tradition of political - and entertaining - theatre from the Czech Republic.
END
John Park
reviewed at The Pleasance / Saturday 3 August 2002
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
