Word: huml
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Havel's play often blurs the line between fantasy and reality, weaving back and forth in time as it tells the story of the frustrated "social scientist" Dr. Eduard Huml and the women in his life. As Huml's relationships with his wife, mistress and secretary spin out of control, so does the play. Three scientists with a hypersensitive talking machine named "Puzuk" take over Huml's home to perform their nebulous experiment...
...scientists bumble around Huml's home, Huml must juggle three women and a multitude of conflicting emotions. To avoid awkward confrontations, Huml frequently pushes a character into the kitchen or another room, so that the cast is constantly streaming in and out of doors on the futuristic set, buzzing around Huml until he can no longer retain his composure...
...Huml as played by Sam Baum '98, does not particularly deserve the audience's sympathy. Baum accentuates the self-absorption and cruelly noncommittal nature of Huml's character. Throughout the play he shows utter indifference to the pain of his wife Vlasta (Kathleen Conroy '98) and his mistress Renata (Jacquie Soohen), both of whom make the apparently unreasonable demand of a faithful relationship...
...Huml gives Vlasta and Renata the same smug equivocations, displaying a strong attachment to neither character. But later, Huml attacks his secretary Blanka (Agnes Dunogue '98) in an explosion of sexual frustration. All this culminates in a dream-like scene in which the three women perform a dance around Huml. According to this production of the play, much of Huml's problem lies in his inability to choose a stable life and experience genuine love...
Decidely genius is the farcical scene in which Huml's haunts literally come crashing down upon his head. This scene is a flawless creation of sound and slapstick. Carefully choreographed characters clomp up stairs, slam doors, charge and claw the professor while screeching lines like, "You're not just trying to jolly along the fish, are you?" The laughter evinced in this scene alone would guarantee the work a place as a comic success...