GENIETS TRAGEDIE: ET TSJEKKISK SKUESPILL OM HAMSUN

• Main Author: Martin Humpal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2016-04-01
• Series: Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur
• Subjects: Knut Hamsun; Martin Komárek; Czech theater; Czech drama; Nazism
• Online Access: https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3763

This article discusses the play The Old Nazi: The Tragedy of a Genius, written by the Czech journalist Martin Komárek and staged in Prague in 2010/2011. It presents both the formal and the thematic aspects of the drama and argues that this unique text deserves to be known outside of the Czech Republic. Komárek made himself familiar with various information about Hamsun’s life, but this did not curb his imagination; his play works very well as theater. The drama contains many fictitious events and dialogues, yet at the same time, it does not distort in any major way the historical image of Hamsun. The play is thus well balanced and provides a very good basis for potentially successful theater productions.