For the first time ever, non-Czech audiences have the chance to get acquainted with Jára Cimrman, a unique phenomenon of Czech culture. The fictional character has enjoyed immense popularity with Czech audiences for more than five decades. One of the Jára Cimrman plays – The Stand In – was recently translated into English and is now being staged in Prague’s Jára Cimrman Theatre by a group of Prague-based, English speaking actors. I went to see the final rehearsal.

Záskok or The Stand In was written by Zdeněk Svěrák and the late Ladislav Smoljak in 1994 and is considered to be one of the best Cimrman plays. Set in 1910, it tells the story of a small, unsuccessful, traveling theatre company, whose repertoire often includes plays by the playwright Jára Cimrman.

In the play, the company’s leading actor suddenly disappears and they are forced to replace him at short notice with a stand-in: the renowned actor Karel Infeld Prácheňský. However, his inability to remember the text, the character he is playing and even which play he is in leads to considerable chaos and much comedy.

The play was translated by Emília Machalová, along with Brian Stewart, the director of the English Cimrman Studio. More.

See: Radio Prague

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