Our Swaggerers

Czech Classical Comedy

Our Swaggerers, a comedy written by Ladislav Stroupežnický became the most popular classical bestseller in the Czech drama during its more than a hundred-year history like Smetana’s Bartered Bride in opera. At its legendary Prague presentation in the year 1979, the director Miloš Macháček called it immortal. An important feature of the play is its sense of humour as a characteristic of the Czech people with which they have been approaching their lives. The figures of the play are people of common fates and qualities. A simple story tells what occurred in a village of Honice when a night watch was to be chosen, how that little event stirred up “political” events and divided a local council in a pettifogging dispute: conceited rich farmers tried to prevail one over another and demonstrate their power, revealing thus their self-will, blindness, pride and naive slyness.