THE SILENCE OF THE BEAVERS

Tomáš Dianiška

Genre: comedy
Cast: 2 women, 2 men

FATHER: Have you gone mad? If they find out... That’s a provocation, a sabotage. Bedřiška is facing ten years for stupid Scouting. Do you understand?

MARIE: No, it’s impossible to understand.

FATHER: They could execute you for this!

MARIE: I think it’s great. The girl who has been unjustly imprisoned is helping to build the new world at the same time.

FATHER: You have to burn it.

MARIE: It will be like a little monument in the pockets of our working class.

“Totalitarian horror about the pitfalls of Scouting.” A play based on a true story about an unbelievable joke hidden in our history. A story from old times when there were statues of Gods looming at Letná and ordinary people were cringing under their tyranny. There were only a few people who were able to rebel and fight against them. Nineteen-year old Bedřiška suddenly starts to show symptoms of a strange disease. She knows how to make a fire without a firelighter and she knows the full lyrics of The Flag is Flying Up. Doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists are clueless. The only possible solution how to save her seems to be an ancient practice of exorcizing. There is no more doubt that the unfortunate girl is obsessed by Scouting…

The meaning of the picture on the most famous Czechoslovak coin, a crown from 1957, has become widely-known only recently. It has been revealed that the winning proposal designed by Marie Uchytilová was inspired by a persecuted Scouts leader Bedřiška Synková. So while the young woman was serving her fourth year of a ten-year sentence for illegal leading of a Scout Group, the regime was proudly distributing new coins with her image. The designer has this way dealt with the regime during the tough totalitarian times.

The play was shortlisted for the prize for The best first staged Czech play of the year 2016 at the Theatre Critics’ Awards.

The play is available in the Czech original and English translation.