Tales of Common Insanity

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Book cover

Tales of Common Insanity (Czech: Příběhy obyčejného šílenství) is an Alfréd Radok Award winning play by Petr Zelenka.

The story centers around Peter, a bachelor in his mid-thirties. He desperately wants to win back his girlfriend Jana. He asks his friend Midge for help. Midge, another loner unable to form a long-lasting relationship with a woman, has gone through many break-ups and therefore consideres himself an expert. Petr also has to pay visit to his discontented parents. His mother ruined the family by endless preaching. She developed a strong passion for blood donation and gets alarmed by the situation in Chechnya. The father, former commentator of communist newsreel, escapes to his own thoughts. He is preoccupied with the idea, whether a light bulb would fit in a mouth. Even Peter's neighbour, a composer fighting hard to get royalties for performance of his music by synthentizers in the elevators, turns out to be at least a bit insane.

The cast includes 8 male and 7 female characters. The character of Petr's pedophile boss is sometimes omitted.

[edit] Production

The world premiere, staged in Dejvické divadlo in Prague in 2001, was directed by the author himself. The cast included Ivan Trojan as Petr, Nina Divíšková as The Mother (nominated for Thalia Award), stage director Ivo Krobot as The Father (received Alfréd Radok Award in category Talent of the Year) and Martin Myšička as Midge.

The play was later staged in Poland (Teatr Dramatyczny in Warszawa), Hungary (Katona József Theatre in Budapest) and Slovakia, as well as in several other Czech theatres. It was also translated to Russian. In 2005, Zelenka made a loose film adaptation, released as Wrong Side Up.