Our Uppish and Defiant Fellows

The councillors of Honice are to elect a bellman, the person responsible for security in the village. The task is formidable, with two strong candidates running for office – the veteran soldier Valentin Bláha and the tailor František Fiala. What is more, the mayor, Filip Dubský, and the first councillor, Jakub Bušek, obstinately sit tight, neither of them willing to compromise. The fraught situation is further aggravated by the municipal council receiving an anonymous letter threatening arson. A plethora of human types is presented on the stage – the “important persons” and their wives, old-timers, young lovers, lowlifes, pig-headed dimwits, tenacious truth-seekers and enthusiastic dupes. All of them live their little lives and great dreams, all of them desire, fight and argue, while the Red Rooster hovers above their roofs … Some 135 years after it was written, Our Uppish and Defiant Fellows is still a fascinating Czech play, a play about ourselves across generations and eras, a play in which the contest for the post of bellman becomes a gigantic struggle for truth and honesty.

In 1887, Ladislav Stroupežnický (1850–1892), an ambitious unyielding dramatist with a restless poetic spirit, a brilliant observer of life in the Czech countryside, referred to his new play as a “contemporary comedy”. The premiere of Our Uppish and Defiant Fellows gave rise to uproar and disputes, provoking outrage due to the author’s uncompromising view, yet also admiration for its forcible and non-idealised depiction of life in a Czech village. Stroupežnický’s text would become immortal, and self-conceit and defiance would become symbols of the Czech national identity. The National Theatre has presented a number of adaptations of the play, including highly popular productions by Miroslav Macháček (1979) and, most recently, J. A. Pitínský (2004). Our new staging has been undertaken by Martin Františák, whose continuous work with rural subjects has earned him the reputation of a creator of impressive poetic folk images, as well as a satirist exposing the true reality of life in a Czech village.

Program and cast

Approximate running time: 2 hours 40 minutes, 1 intermission (20 minutes)

Language: In Czech, surtitles in English, German

Filip Dubský, farmer, Mayor of Honice - David Matásek

Marie Dubská, wife of Filip - Martina Preissová

Václav, son of Filip and Marie - Šimon Krupa

Petr Dubský, father of Filip, farm keeper -František Němec

Jakub Bušek, farmer, first councillor of Honice - Ondřej Pavelka

Františka Bušková, wife of Jakub - Taťjana Medvecká

Verunka, daughter of Jakub and Františka - Marie Poulová

Valentin Bláha, military veteran - Radúz Mácha

Josef Habršperk, cobbler - Ondřej Malý

František Fiala, tailor - Igor Orozovič

Terezka, wife of František - Magdaléna Borová

Kristyna, daughter of František and Terezka - Eliška Friedrichová

Matěj Šumbal, farmer, member of the municipal committee - Filip Kaňkovský

Marie, wife of Matěj - Lucie Polišenská

Pavel Kožený, farmer, member of the municipal committee - Vladislav Beneš

Kašpar Šmejkal, farmer, member of the municipal committee - Marek Daniel

Karel Kudrlička, teacher in Radotice, scrivener of Honice - Matyáš Řezníček

Marek Ehrmann, inn owner in Honice - Csongor Kassai

Markýtka Nedochodilová, travelling saleswoman, trading in wooden utensils - Pavla Beretová

Filip Fiala - Josef Bánovec

Policeman - Martin Veliký