1914
Based on "The Last Days of Mankind" by Karl Kraus and "The Good Soldier Švejk" by Jaroslav Hašek
Costumes by Yashi
Premiered on April 30, 2014 at the Estates Theater, Prague, Czech Republic
Performed in Czech.
The Good Soldier Švejk, the key novel of Czech literature and an ironic insight into war and its attendant absurdity, is creatively juxtaposed in this production with Karl Kraus’s satirical anti-war play The Last Days of Mankind. The modern-theatre wizard Robert Wilson transforms all this into a cabaret replete with scenic images, music and surprising humour in a parable not only of 1914 but also, and primarily, our life today, one hundred years after the outbreak of a terrible war that marked the real start of the 20th century.