The Marx Family Saga

In the 1993 Spanish novel La saga de los Marx, the present intertwines with the historical perspective of the 19th century – the dead come back to life to speak, comment on events, argue with the living and with each other. The family portrait that the author attempts to sketch against this backdrop is constantly anachronistically shaped by Karl Marx’s current media image. The bankrupt post-socialist world is overwhelmed by an empty consumer society that conquers all. “Goytisolo isn’t bound by conventional narrative logic, let alone historical fact. Karl Marx and his family can watch on television the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the invasion of impoverished Albanian refugees on Italian beaches occupied by the elite of the capitalist West. He observes the fetishisation of his teachings in the form of portraits and busts of Lenin and himself. He watches the sale of cheap trinkets that are supposed to remind us of the lost world of the Soviet empire,” wrote Petr Šmíd about the Spanish book. Jan Mikulášek’s loose stage adaptation offers a multi-layered response in the form of a collage, combining the text by Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo with his own perception of and approach to this controversial figure. The attempt to portray a historical figure is constantly disrupted by multiple thematic and genre perspectives – dramatic psychological scenes from Marx’s life are interspersed with metaphorical images (a parade of zombie Young Pioneers) and video footage presenting a contemporary view of Marx. 

The production opens with a farcical scene depicting the installation of a statue of Marx, a petrified philosopher pointing his rigid index finger at the audience as if it were the leitmotif of the entire production. In a sense, the production is a collage, in keeping with its subject, looking at the phenomenon of Karl Marx from many, often contradictory angles, and therein lies its playful energy, supported by a superb cast.
– JANA MACHALICKÁ, lidovky.cz

The Goose on a String ensemble achieves an exceptional collective performance that is a joy to watch on stage.
– JAKUB ŠKORPIL, nadivadlo.cz

JAN MIKULÁŠEK (1978) worked as the artistic director of the Polárka Theatre in Brno and later also as the artistic head of the Petr Bezruč Theatre in Ostrava. He also cooperated with the Reduta Theatre in Brno on a regular basis. In 2013, when Petr Štědroň, artistic head of the Reduta Theatre, took over as head of the Theatre on the Balustrade, Mikulášek became its in-house director. He won the 2011 Divadelní noviny Award for Best Creative Achievement in the drama category for his production of The V+W Letters. In 2013, his production of The Golden Sixties won the Alfréd Radok Award for Production of the Year; and in 2018, he received the Divadelní noviny Award for Best Creative Achievement in the drama category for his production of Woodcutters. In that same year, he also took home the Josef Balvín Award for that same production from the Prague German Language Theatre Festival. In addition to the Theatre on the Balustrade, he collaborates with other theatres, recently with the National Theatre (The Cremator, Maryša, Wonderful Land, I Am the State) and in particular with the Goose on a String Theatre (Don Quixote, Dictionary of the Khazars, The Marx Family Saga). Mikulášek’s directorial approach frequently involves stage adaptations of novels, original scripts, and original theatre plays. He often employs cuts, detail, musical counterpoint, and parallel action. What interests him most about theatre are the contrasts – the tension between precision and sloppiness, the mechanical and the authentic, and frenzy and calm.

GOOSE ON A STRING THEATRE is a leading Brno theatre, founded in 1967. Its strong point has always been its irregular dramaturgy, making use of new themes in originally non-dramatic texts. The progressive theatre formed around the dramaturge Bořivoj Srba and the directors Eva Tálská, Zdeněk Pospíšil and Peter Scherhaufer. As one of the country’s freest theatre groups, it managed to retain its courage and freshness despite many difficulties under the previous regime. The ensemble performed in the House of Art, which was otherwise (and still is) an exhibition space. The theatre keeps true to the principles of freedom of expression, openness to dialogue and pluralism of opinions, and aims its productions at spreading these values and cultivating civil society in Central Europe. In January 2019, Anna Davidová, an award-winning Czech director, took over as artistic director of the Goose on a String Theatre. She brought with her several new collaborators, including dramaturges Kateřina Menclerová and Martin Sládeček. The latter replaced her as artistic director at the end of the 2020/2021 season. They have developed a concept focused on non-pandering dramaturgy, where they look into topical questions and adapt original works. Another key element is their efforts to open the theatre to various aesthetics and audience groups.