The first performance of Václav Havel’s play, “The Beggar’s Opera,” was performed not by actors, but by Havel’s friends at a small theater in Prague. It was an invite-only production, and the location was so secretive that the limited number of guests had to drive around the suburbs of Prague a few times before finding the theater.
Havel was not working on a budget, nor was he careless. Rather, he was blacklisted.
Havel, who would become the first president of the Czech Republic in 1989, was a politically active playwright whose views on the corruption of Czechoslovakia’s then-communist government put him on the bad side of the people in power.
Thus, the first performance did not even occur under Havel’s name. He attributed the play to John Gay, who had written the original “The Beggar’s Opera” in 1728; Havel had modified Gay’s version to meet his own ends.
In the UCLA Department of Theater’s version of Havel’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” which opened last Thursday and runs until March 10 at the Macgowan Little Theater, director Brian Kite explained that doing the play was a risk not only for Havel, but also for the gutsy actors who performed it after the initial showing.
“He was living in a world with an oppressive government, run by lazy and uninterested people,” Kite said. “Most of the actors who did the play weren’t allowed to perform anymore, because after the government found out about the controversial subject matter, they became furious and blacklisted them.”
“The Beggar’s Opera” centers on the adventures of MacHeath, a professional thief and womanizer, and his two loves, Lucy and Polly.
It criticizes the sabotage within one’s own family for the greater good, a theme that echoes the communist society in which Havel lived.
After writing the play in 1975, Havel ensured that it would continue to be performed because he believed strongly in its message about the duties of all citizens to stand up and fight against their government if they find it to be corrupt.
“It was a politically charged play, and certainly applies to us now with so many political sides fighting one another in this country,” Kite said. “It deals with who’s telling the truth, who’s lying to who. It’s interesting that the same play can be done hundreds of years later and still make sense.”
The play’s lasting relevance and provocative message was what drew Karen Schantz, a second-year theater graduate student, to play Mrs. Peachum, Polly’s mother.
“It’s just like asking, “˜Why do we keep doing Shakespeare?'” Schantz said. “We can keep relating to the play, since it’s so human and so tangible.”
In “The Beggar’s Opera,” the overarching theme is the quest for truth in a world where truth may not even exist, or at least comes in wrappers of multiple layers of lies. And the ultimate truth, Schantz said, is who has the power.
“There was so much corruption, sex and deceit in Havel’s time and in our own, and Havel comments on that by paralleling our government’s dealings with the struggle of power in the underworld,” Schantz said.
The question of truth even extends to the play’s title. “The Beggar’s Opera” is not an opera, despite what the title insinuates.
“I think Havel wanted a bit of false advertising in the title, to mislead the audience in every way possible,” Kite said. “Most importantly, the title comments on the world we live in today, in which the play’s message is still alive. … It’s for the common man. But we do try to avoid misunderstanding by writing on all our fliers, “˜The Beggar’s Opera ““ a play’.”
Despite its serious nature, “The Beggar’s Opera” is actually quite comedic. The characters are larger than life, and people of the lower class, namely prostitutes and gangsters, speak elegantly.
Assistant director Alex Rogals said that the actors’ manipulation of physical and vocal characteristics lends itself to showing the truth behind the comedy.
“The line between comedy and message is pretty thin,” Rogals said. “What makes this play funny is how true it is. Nothing is truly funny unless it’s ultimately true.”
Political satire aside, the cast has maintained the comedy that makes this play fun to watch, even if the real truth is never to be found.
“It’s a commentary on the abusive power of the government, and it’s more focused on the people living under communism than communism itself,” Kite said. “The play is a call to action, but we’re not trying to preach. The audience should enjoy the story.”
Despite its comedic elements, however, Kite pointed out that “The Beggar’s Opera” is truly about the nature of truth and fiction.
“Havel’s interested thematically in truth ““ who should you care about, where you should be in the system. Everybody in this play is always telling the truth, even though they’re lying through their teeth the whole time,” he said. “Who is really telling the truth? You have to go back and think about that, because the truth changes in every scene. That’s part of the genius of this play.”