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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Audience
and
Protest
Verdict: Lively political shorts
London - Etcetera Theatre - 30 March - 18 April 04
Two short plays by former Czech president Václav Havel offering sharp vingnettes of life under communism - they're drama with a light touch. Each has the same cast of two. Audience runs for 40 minutes, Protest 20 min, with 20 min interval.
Audience. It looks like just another meeting with the boss. Ferdinand Vanek's invited to the brewery foreman's office, finds him asleep surrounded by beer bottles, wakes him up, and the audience begins. The foreman warns Vanek who not to talk to, for Vanek's a political dissident playwright, reduced to rolling barrels in a beer depot. And grateful for it - it's work, even if the cellar's cold. The foreman might have an easier job for Vanek - in the warmth of the warehouse, where he'd have time to write his plays. But there's a price - would Vanek mind, terribly, doing the reports to the security services on himself that the foreman's otherwise obliged to invent? After all - he is a writer.
It's a glorious piece of writing, a lively, gently humourous and enjoyable romp through a set of hurdles as complex as any set by another celebrated Czech writer, Franz Kafka. It works well several levels: the universal chip/snob battle between the working class and middle class intellectual - Sun v Guardian, CoCo Pops v muesli; the minutae of survival in communist Czechoslovakia; a sharp observation of drunken argument; the see-saw nature of office politics.
There are outstanding performances from the 2 cast. James Hedges excels as the portly foreman - a kind and gentle man with hair-trigger rage and bottled-up frustration at life's bitter taste; his acting gives a fine and subtle portrait of emotional distress. Laurie Tallack delights as the alcoholically abstemious playwright, part underdog, part overlord; his perception and delivery of the witty understatements in the script - concealing an active pursuit of the character's self-interest - balance the drama with acute sensitivity.
Protest Successful writer Stanek invites dissident playwright - just out of jail - Ferdinand Vanek for drinks at his luxurious house. Stanek wants Vanek to write a protest piece to liberate a rock musician indicted for political excess - it's his daughter's boyfriend. Coincidentally, Vanek wants Stanek to sign a petition for the same cause. Trouble is, Stanek's not keen to get his hands dirty - he'll lose his job if he signs.
This remarkably subtle short drama works on a succession of surprising revelations, and a refusal to go for easy rights and wrongs. Stanek moves from being a stereotype to an honest man with an honest dilemma; for all his street credibility, Vanek's as calculating and manipulative as those he despises - he too is an honest man. And the objective is achieved - in an unexpected way which dishonours neither.
James Hedges gives Stanek authority and ambivalence, it's a delivery rich in vulnerability; Laurie Tallack gives Ferdinand Vanek a mixture of gentleness, iron endurance and wily diplomacy.
Audience & Protest
The remarkable Václav Havel, a man of solid and enduring courage who became the Czech Republic's first president after the removal of communism, contributed consistently to its demise with his daring (and funny) dramas ridiculing the regime. These two short plays - in which he appears as the character Ferdinand Vanek - showcase his gift for entertainment.
Because, above all, they are fun. There's a solid punch in each, and they brim with truth. There's a gentle, compassionate understanding of people that gives the plays an immediate appeal.
The lively Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal reckoned, tongue in cheek, that communism was great for the arts - it forced them into action or, as he put it: 'Olives give oil only if they're pressed'. Theatre was Prague's battering-ram against communism, and it remains the medium of discussion and protest most integrated to Czech society. There's no British equivalent to this - perhaps the closest being newspapers. But then the UK wouldn't put a dramatist in charge of running the country. Drama-queen, yes - but that's not quite the same thing.
Pia Khan directs with verve and a strong sense of pace. The production's presented by The Village Players.
Cast Credits: Audience: James Hedges - Foreman. Laurie Tallack - Ferdinand Vanek. Protest: James Hedges - Stanek. Laurie Tallack - Ferdinand Vanek.
Company Credits: Writer - Václav Havel. Translator - Vera Blackwell. Initial Direction - John Wallcraft. Director / Producer - Pia Khan. Co-Producer - James Hedges. Executive Producer / Technical Supervisor - Charles Bond. Design Consultant - Ingrid Hu. Stage Manager - Lia Buddle. Deputy Stage Manager / Costruction - Matt Finch. Assistant Stage Manager - Elly O'Brien. Company - The Village Players. Thanks to: Sally Bond. Laila Khan. Cecilia Perez. Liz Hyder. Duncan Mclean. Maria Hughes & British Czech/Slovak Association. Czech Embassy. Czech Cultural Centre & Lubna Kazmi.
END
John Park
reviewed Sunday 18 April 04 / Etcetera Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
