Karel Poláček: Beard tape

A dramatic anecdote about great love and unsaleable goods. The play belongs to the early period of Karel Poláček's work, when he worked as a journalist, short story writer, feyetonist and courtier. At that time he wrote the excellent Tales of the Israelite Confession, in which one can also find a number of dramatic elements, including narrative monologues as well as characters and plots related to that comedy. In it, Poláček portrayed the character of Prague's Jewish merchants as part of the community of Prague's Jewish population at the beginning of state independence. The comedy sparkles most when the dialogue is between two businessmen who are caught up in these intrigues. Their desire to deceive each other intensifies towards the end, when they both speak at the same time and their identical thinking is revealed. For them, morality is a utilitarian commodity and stems from the interests of business. Poláček lets them talk about it, formulate it, while laughing at their business zeal. Persons and cast: Man (Stanislav Oubram), Woman (Vlasta Peterková), Leopold Hahn (Jiří Sovák), Mrs. Hahn (Jaroslava Adamova), Alfréd Votický (Václav Vydra), Julius Baum (Jan Teplý), Miss Elsa (Jolana Maurer), Artur Popper (Jiri Labus), Mrs. Pashkes (Jana Synkova), Hugo Lüftschütz (Milan Neděla) and others. Directed by: Peter Adler. Filmed in 1990.