ŠVEJK During World War Three

based on Jaroslav Hašek

Dramatization and Direction: Damyan Tenev

Set Design and Costumes: Radostina Teneva

Music: Krasimir Geshev

Assistant Director: Maristela Koleva

Cast

Krasimir Nenkov, Yana Bozhanin, Martina Georgieva, Simona Zhulianova, Borislav Vezhenov, Borche Manov, Todor Kotsev, Velin Bratanov, Georgi Georgiev, Georgi Nozhdеlov, Ivan Kaloshev, Tsvetomir Cherkazov

A play inspired by Jaroslav Hašek's classic, yet transported into the future — a world where war is not merely fought on the battlefield, but has become a way of life. It is a story about the "little man" living in the shadow of great events, and his struggle to hold on to himself as everything around him falls apart.

Why do we need Švejk? Can it really be that more than a hundred years after his creation, he is still relevant to us? This bumbling, rotund "misunderstanding" of a man is back once again — to bring a smile to our faces and offer us a moment of amusement, but also to teach us that even in the darkest of hours, we must never abandon hope. A hero who fights not with weapons but with his own sincere humanity, he feels more necessary today than ever before.

As he stumbles his way toward salvation within the machinery of a repressive military system, he will find love and lose it, fall time and again only to rise once more, laugh and jest — all while laying bare the madness of war and the absurdity of violence. Švejk is a child who never grew up, adrift in a world of adults — a ray of light, or perhaps a treasure chest holding everything we lost the moment we abandoned our innocence and naivety. In a world torn apart by war and estranged from itself, Švejk — the little man with a great big heart — will come face to face with the greatest absurdity of all: the discovery that machines have become more humane than people themselves.

The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During World War Three is a story about love — the only force capable of saving us — about the faith that guides us, and the hope without which we cannot survive.