They're smiling, not frowning. There isn't a depressed-looking individual in sight as they discuss Kafka at a reception to mark the arrival in Dublin of an international troupe of actors come to perform The Trial. "Kafka thought the play was funny," offers Czech actress Petra Lustigova.
Czech ambassador Petr Kolar is there, as guest of honour, to greet the visitors.
James Kilbane, group chairman of Grafton Recruitment, host of the party, dismisses all thoughts that the Czechs are introspective. No, they're happy, beautiful and exuberant - "well, maybe not quite as exuberant as their neighbours, the Hungarians."
"It's the best play in Dublin this year," says another actor from Prague, David Maj. The play is "not depressing," insists Wim deVos, a Dutch lighting designer with the theatre company which is based in Prague. "It is serious, of course . . . it tells the story about what bureaucracy can do to you and how you can get into trouble when the system is not made for human beings."
Scott Bellefeille from Arizona fell in love with Prague in 1993 and has been there since. What about Dublin? He just smiles and looks out the window of the Clarence Hotel at the greasy Liffey slipping by.
Adding a splash of colour to the proceedings is Maura Gallagher, dressed in pink. A member of the Czech-Irish Business Association, she is there with her husband, Brendan. "Czech people are very similar to the Irish," she says. "They're very friendly and very go-ahead and they're nice to do business with."
Another American in Prague is director Nancy Bishop, from Chicago. "It's quite a big undertaking - getting the five actors together," she says. "We've brought out the humour in this production. Czech people have a dark sense of humour, it's very black. We didn't want it to be depressing."