"Bruce Paley is an extraordinary writer, and his Obrovský is a delight: an original laugh-out-loud comedy…the situations are outrageous, but following the efforts of the all-too-human protagonists is a joy". So says Luke Rhinehart, author of The Dice Man, about Bruce Paley's novel The Obrovský Theatre Co. of Blaznivyzeme. The book is a black comedy that tells the story of Jirí Bloudín, a brilliant, charismatic if cocky dwarf actor known as the Miniature Marlon Brando, who is lured out of a premature retirement to star in an all-dwarf production of Hamlet in the fictitious Eastern European country of Blaznivyzeme as it undergoes a difficult transition from communism to capitalism. A notorious womaniser, Jiři has a well-earned reputation for being an unrepentant alcohol and drug abuser, and rumour has it that he may be washed up. The production is to be directed by the nonagenarian Serge Velkorevský, whose lifelong ambition of staging the play had been thwarted by the country’s successive Nazi and communist governments. Needless to say, nothing seems to go as planned….