The performance is presented in partnership with the Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, 169 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, on these days: 

Friday October 23, 7 to 8.30 pm (preview) 

Saturday October 24, 7 to 8.30 pm

Friday October 30, 7 to 8.30 pm

Saturday October 31, 3 to 4.30 pm

Saturday October 31, 7 to 8.30 pm

 

“The Good Soldier Švejk” is the contemporary stage adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek's beloved comic novel.  Soldier Švejk is cheerful, unshakeable, unpredictable and seemingly simple - yet somehow, he survives (and quietly subverts) a world gone mad around him. He is the ‘everyman’ who reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit.

This stage adaptation, by Scene Theatre Sydney’s artistic director Carol Dance, has modernised and massaged this comic novel into a 90-minute gem.  It’s at the Castlereagh Boutique Hotel (around the corner from Gadigal Metro).  There is a trio of wonderful actors. Theo Rule plays Švejk.  Ciarán O'Riordan and Patrick Trumper play a dozen other comic roles. Michele Conyngham is the director. Nigel Edwards is the composer.

Carol says “Švejk survives war, gaol, military blunders and bureaucracy gone mad. Švejk follows every order so precisely that his comical ineptitude unravels the system. As the army officers and the Empire’s bureaucracy become frantic and irrational, Švejk remains calm, and happy.  Is Švejk a simpleton caught in the chaos, or a quiet rebel exposing the madness of war? The novel and my adaptation don’t answer the question. I leave it to the audience to decide.”

Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech who lived from 1883 to 1923. He was at various times a soldier, an anarchist, a Bolshevik, an itinerant, and always a writer. He wrote short fictional stories about Soldier Švejk that in 1921 were published as The Good Soldier Švejk.  It became a famous anti-war classic.  When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Švejk’s spirit was recalled when the resistance fighters were named ‘Švejkites’. Švejk has become part of the vernacular: to “švejkovat” is to make mockery of the authorities by obeying them completely.

The Švejk Bar opens 45 minutes before each performance at the venue.

Tickets are $45 (preview) and $60. Book here

 

Producer: Scene Theatre Sydney

Producing partner: Castlereagh Boutique Hotel

Carol Dance: Adaptor of the novel

Michele Conyngham: Director

Theo Rule: Švejk

Ciarán O'Riordan: multiple comic roles

Patrick Trumper: multiple comic roles

Nigel Edwards: Composer