Josep Skupa and The Spejbl Hurvínek Theater

Of the many important puppeteers to champion social issues was Josep Skupa. He began working as a puppeteer in cabarets in Western Bohemia starting in 1920. In 1926 he would add an impetuous son to his act and the act was so popular he was able to secure his own space and starting in the 1930s created what is considered the first professional puppet theater. There he would perform acts through occupation of Nazi forces. His insurrectionist puppetry would place him in prison in 1944. Surviving Nazi occupation, Skupa would continue to perform while under Soviet rule. The Soviets saw his puppetry as directly subversive to the government, and one film he made using his characters was suppressed for 20 years. Skupa's spirit shows us how the smallest of symbols can scare the largest of powers with the way they can relate stories to popular audiences.

I admire this spirit for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that my family emigrated from Bohemia before either world wars. Later, it would not be Bohemia. Because history is strange. But the spirit of Bohemia is strong, and insurrection against unjust authority is validated and solidified by not only Skupa, but the fierce resistance offered by the Bohemian people by Nazi oppression. Famously, a group of commandos working with Czech underground operatives successfully assassinated Reinhard Heydrich. It was the only instance during the entire war that local resistance fighters were able to eliminate that high a ranking official. In terms of Skupa, and the theater he created in the midst of turmoil and war, what can we say, but that history is dotted but not overwhelmed with people willing to adhere to their beliefs and their arts when the jackboots are kicking down the stage door. We can’t even imagine the sort of circumstances that would put us in prison for expressing ourselves, or if we can it is a false imagining. Skupa remains important to all of this both as an example of how performance art can be used to resist tyranny, and how the spirit of the artist cannot be crushed by the weight of fascism.