The "Lucian Blaga" National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca announces the premiere ŠVEJK IN CONCERT after THE FATEFUL ADVENTURES OF THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK by Jaroslav Hašek, translated in Romanian by Jean Grosu, which will take place in the Main Hall, Thursday December 21, 2017, from 7.00 p.m.
Here's what Ada Milea tells us about the idea of the in-progress performance: "I wanted it to look like a train journey towards the front line, with the possibility of «derailing» from what it seems to be. I chose a few characters and situations, and placed them in the train, even if they got nothing to do with the travel from Hašek's book. I was interested in the different attitudes each one has towards destruction and death. The book (and I hope also the concert) fully exploits the humour of the situations and proves that war is an utter madness with nothing to do with us (unless, of course, it kills us)".
Jaroslav Hašek (30 April 1883 - 3 January 1923) was a satirical, humorist, anarchist Socialist Czech writer, known especially for his novel The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk, written between 1921 and 1923, and translated in over sixty languages, a novel regarded as the writer's masterpiece and one of the best novels of the 20th century. A partial translation in Romanian was signed in 1935 by Gafița Buga, while the integral variant, translated by Al. O. Teodoreanu and Jean Grosu, with original illustrations by Josef Lada, was published in 1956. Many scenes and characters from the novel are inspired by the military service Hašek completed within the 91 Infantry Regiment from the Austrian-Hungarian Army. Hašek also wrote more than one thousand five hundreds short stories. He worked as a journalist, he led a bohemian and farcical life.
Švejk's adventures begin by the naive comentaries upon the 1914 Sarajevo murder attempt and the trigger of the First World War, when he is conscripted in the Austrian Army. The pub talks and the political gossip make him join the army. As a civil, the "brave" soldier used to live from selling dogs. All through his "war" journey, Švejk becomes Otto Katz's batman, and is lost at cards to Senior Lieutenant Lukas, with whom he goes to the front. Advancing on the front line, the ill-fated Švejk falls at each step in a new kind of trouble: he loses the train and walks by foot in the wrong direction, where he is mistaken for a spy; during a recce, he tries the uniform of a Russian fugitive prisoner and is mistaken for him; Lieutenant Lukas's love letter is handed to the husband instead of the wife, and many other such pranks. Švejk is a man of parables, of blissful ignorance, of childlike soul, perpetually smiling, without any kind of inner turmoil. His prodigious memory compares any new thing that happens with similar examples and situations, much to the dismay of his companions and especially superiors.
Ada Milea's musical journey - like it happens in most of her other concert-performances - intertwines humour and serious reflection, as we can see from the lyrics of a song whose protagonists are Švejk, Dub, Lukas and Otto Katz: "They can arrest you anytime / for what you've merely dared to think / for writing a suspicious word in a line / you must watch what you say / when, where, to whom / lest you should wake up speaking to the enemy". Examples can go on, but we don't want to take the viewers' pleasure to discover all themselves.
concert-performance by: Ada Milea
scenography: Cristian Rusu
musical assistant: Anca Hanu
lights master: Jenel Moldovan
Cast:
Švejk: Adrian Cucu
Otto Katz, company priest: Cătălin Herlo
Cadet Marek: Radu Dogaru
Balon, Lieutenant Dub's batman: Mihnea Blidariu
Vodicka: Cristian Rigman
Lieutenant Dub: Miron Maxim
Senior Lieutenant Lukas: Matei Rotaru
Ladies: Anca Hanu, Sânziana Tarţa
Colonel's batman, then General-Major's batman: Nucu Pandrea
Eugenia Sarvari
Literary secretary
