Vladislav Vančura: F. C. Ball

In the 1920s and 1930s, several Czech writers chose football as the subject of their prose. Not surprisingly, it was during the interwar period that football in Czechoslovakia flourished and became a social phenomenon that begged for literary treatment. Eduard Bass's Klapzub's Eleven (1922) and Karel Poláček's Men in Offside (1931) still retain the atmosphere of the First Republic football enthusiasm. Somewhat hidden in the shadow of these humanised humorous prose remains Vladislav Vančura's short story F. C. Ball (1922). In his unique style, the author tells the story of the birth, rise and fall of the miraculous football club F. C. Ball, which was created in the Prague pub U Dvou litrů. Full of tongue-in-cheek playfulness and absurdist humour, the story is a parodic homage to the game of football, but above all a celebration of male togetherness. In 1969, the story was adapted for radio by director Josef Melč. The perfectly matched ensemble of actors is led by Karel Höger as the narrator, who sets the pace for the entire production with his sovereign and dynamic speech.