‘Rendezvous in Bratislava,’ on Stage

Jan ‘Laco’ Kalina was a dramaturg, satirist, collector of jokes and writer of cabarets, born in Czechoslovakia in 1913. A Slovak Jew, he survived the fascists only to be imprisoned by the communists, who saw him as a threat to the regime. Digging through artifacts and stories from Laco’s remarkable life, Miriam Sherwood pursues her granddad’s voice through his own jokes, skits and songs, conjuring up an archival cabaret that reverberates with laughter from a very different place and time. With original music and a live band of Slovaks, Rendezvous in Bratislava traces family connections across national, historical and political borders, and celebrates the power of laughter in troubled times.

This event is part of the “1968 in Poland and Czechoslovakia in Comparison” conference, presented by the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies; the International Visegrad Fund; the Center for European Studies; the College of Arts and Sciences; the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the History Department; the Music Department; the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures; the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies; the Duke Center for Jewish Studies; and the Curriculum in Global Studies.