Schweyk in the Second World War

Picture a Bohemian pub in WWII occupied Czechoslovakia, where only the misfits, idiots, and cowards incapable of war remain. Here, these lowly men (liken to Dorothy and her friends in The Wizard of Oz) must tolerate the drunken Fascist Nazis who walk amongst them. One man, an “idiot” in the Shakespearian sense, dares to speak the truth (of sorts) to the occupiers. This is Schweyk, a dog-catcher who finds himself arrested, conscripted into the Nazi army, and wandering lost in Russia until he stumbles upon Hitler (a puppet vaudevillian character).

Meanwhile in the bar, our cast of broken characters struggle with love, lust, and fear of the day they too will snap and start talking. It’s a play of small men with big hearts living as themselves, even when it’s forbidden.