Lipany (Cimrman)

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Lipany was the name of a fictional theatrical group, created by the fictional Czech playwright/inventor and overall "genius" Jára Cimrman. It received its name from the Battle at Lipany, where the Bohemians obtained a devastating defeat.

[edit] Personnel

The ensemble was, on one hand, famous for not having many women, usually played by men,and not having many actors at all. At the height of its popularity, it had seven members.

The low number of actors did not permit the ensemble to do famous plays of other authors unabridged and so the libretto was many times altered to fit the ensemble's size("Alibaba and the 40 thieves" was abbreviated into "Loner Alibaba"). The most famous of such plays was Shakespeare's Hamlet "without Hamlet" in which actors would do a scene from Shakespeare, saying the original lines, however adding remarks and words to make the contents seem semi-sane and in co-ordination with the fact that Hamlet is missing thought the entire play.

The only better known actor was an actor named Kuk, who was always so consumed with his role that he continued to live it even after the curtain went down. For instance, he once played Maryša so ingeniously, that he even made the prompter Standa Křeček cry during the play. Yet even though the viewers applauded this absolute playing, the work of the theatre was often in jeopardy. For instance,after Maryša,no one from the ensemble would go and drink coffee with Kuk. Kuk was seen to take on every characteristic of the character he was to play, including authentic depression and hysteria. At another time,after playing Gogol's "The Inspector General", Kuk disappeared,and his colleagues re-united with him on a train, where he was checking their tickets (Note the Czech words for The Inspector General and a train inspector are the same, yet their meanings are entirely different).

The ensemble was plagued with small numbers of actors because many skilled authors left the ensemble very quickly. Therefore, a quick replacement was needed, and for these in-experienced actors Cimrman created the "decalogue for beginning actors",in which the reader was cautioned to forget that some doors are only painted and that all the food on feasts is rubber.

[edit] Talents

The ensemble was infamous from several reasons, mainly because the plays were heavily disliked by people. In order to avoid returning the entrance fee, when they felt the public is not satisfied,they performed the universal scene "drift from the mountains" (vichr z hor) with featured a drift taking away houses and trees (the scenery being packed away) and commencing in a total blackout,in which the two speaking actors cold board the two prepared bicycles and leave to meet up with the rest of the fleeing ensemble .

Because of its famousness,the ensemble often changed its names, for instance to "Bílá Hora" or "Chlumec", again being names of famous defeats of the Czechs,and so could go to the same village more than once.

The stations were chosen to be at a greater distance from each other, in order to prevent the people from learning anything of the nature and quality of the play itself.

[edit] Demise

The ensemble worked for many years until December 1912,the actors went to different villages to pose as Mikuláš's. Cimrman, however, forgot to name a rendezvous point, so the ensemble never met again after that date.