* 5. 10. 1936
As the son of an entrepreneur and builder, Václav Havel was, for political reasons, barred from higher education. Instead, he took an apprenticeship in a chemical laboratory and graduated whilst employed, later working as a stage hand, assistant director and dramaturge at the Theatre on the Balustrades. In his twenties he started writing for literary and theatre magazines, but it was not until 1967 that he was able to graduate in dramaturgy from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts. His plays The Garden Party, Memorandum and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration introduced a new spirit onto the Czech and later the international stage. In the summer of 1968 he spent several weeks in the USA, but in 1969, after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies, he was - as a leading cultural representative of the Prague Spring - completely silenced. With his new plays, including The Beggar's Opera, Audience and Private View, with his essays, manifestos and his everyday attitude, he became the natural authority for independent movements in Czechoslovakia and a leading representative of international culture. He was imprisoned several times by the Communist authorities, on the last occasion in 1989. Following the "velvet revolution", of which he was the best-known representative, he was from 1990-1992 President of Czechoslovakia and from 1993-2002 President of the Czech Republic. In a television questionnaire in 2005 he was voted the third greatest Czech in history, an exceptional achievement by international standards: in no other country holding such a popular pastime has a living individual achieved such a high ranking.
LIST OF PLAYS (selection):
Zahradní slavnost (The Garden Party) 1963, première 3.12.1963, Divadlo Na zábradlí Prague
Vyrozumění (The Memorandum) 1965, première 25.7.1965, Divadlo Na zábradlí Prague
Ztížená možnost soustředění (The Increased Difficulty of Concentration), 1968, première 11.4.1968, Divadlo Na zábradlí Prague
Audience, 1975, première 9.10.1976, Akademietheater Vienna (Austria)
Vernisáž (Unveiling, Private View), 1975, première 9.10.1976, Akademietheater Vienna (Austria)
Largo desolato, 1984, première 13.4.1985, Akademietheater Vienna (Austria)
Pokoušení (Temptation), 1985, première 23.5.1986, Akademietheater Vienna (Austria)
Asanace (Redevelopment, Slum Clearence), 1987, première 24.9.1989, Schauspielhaus Zürich (Switzerland)
Odcházení (Leaving), 2007, première 22.5.2008, Divadlo Archa, Prague
TRANSLATED PLAYS (selection):
Metamorfóza: English - Motormorphosis
Zahradní slavnost: English - The Garden Party, German - Das Gartenfest, Russian - Prazdnik v sadu, Spanish - Una fiesta en el jardín, Dutch - Het Tuinfeest
Vyrozumění: English - The Memorandum, French - Le rapport don't vous êtes l´objet, German - Die Benachrictigung, Russian - Uvedomlenie, Spanish - El comunicando, Turkish - Bildirim
Ztížená možnost soustředění: English - The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, German - Erschwerte Möglichkeit der Konzentration, Russian - Trudno sosredotochitsia
Anděl strážný: English - Guardian Angel, French - L´ange Gardien, German - Der Schutzengel
Motýl na anténě: English - A Butterfly on the Antenna
Spiklenci: English - Conspirators
Horský hotel: English - The Mountain Hotel, French - Hôtel des Cimes, German - Das Berghotel, Russian - Gostinica v gorach
Žebrácká opera: English - The Beggars´ Opera, French - La grande roue, Spanish - Ópera de los mendigos, Polish - Opera zebracza
Audience: English - Audience, French - Audience, German - Audienz, Portuguese - Audiencia, Russian - Audiencija, Spanish - Audiencia
Vernisáž: English - Vernissage, Private View, French - Vernissage, Polish - Wernisaź, Portuguese - Vernissage, Russian - Vernisaž, Spanish - Inauguración
Protest: English - Protest, French - Pétition, German - Der Protest, Polish - Protest, Portuguese - E Peticao, Russian - Protest, Belorussian - Pratest, Bulgarian - Protest
Chyba: English - Mistake, French - Tant pis, German - Der Fehler, Russian - Probljema, Spanish - Error
Largo desolato: English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish - Largo Desolato
Pokoušení: English - Temptation, French - Tentation, German - Die Versuchung, Polish - Kuszenie, Russian - Iskushenije, Spanish - La Tentación
Asanace: English - Redevelopment, Slum Clearance, German - Sanierung, Polish - Rewaloryzacja, Russian - Rekonstrukcija
Zítra to spustíme: English - Tomorrow!, Russian - Zavtra vystupajem
Ela, Hela a autostop: English - Hitchhiking
Odcházení: English - Leaving, Croatian - Odlaženje, Dutch - Het vertrek, French - Sur le départ, German - Der Abgang, Polish - Odejścia, Spanish - Retirándose, Katalian - Anar-se´n, Latvian - Aiziešana, Rumanian - Plecare, Turkish - Ayriliş, Russian - Uchod, Bulgarian - Ottegliane, Magyar - Távozás
Translated plays - synopsis:
AN EVENING WITH THE FAMILY (RODINNÝ VEČER, 1960)
2 men, 3 women
Havel's first play was not premiered until 2000 in the Vinohrady Theatre, in a dramaturgically significant double bill with the already famous Private View. This tragedy in one act does have a very close affinity to Private View. Apart from the similar theme, the two one-act plays are linked by their leading characters Věra and Michal (in the original text Alena and Ivan). Three generations meet (or conflict) in An Evening with the Family: Granny, whose world has narrowed to card games and acceptance of the loss of her parrot; the older married couple, the Pokornýs; and their daughter Alena and son-in-law Ivan. The theme of the play is the cyclical stereotype and unbearable boredom and "numbness" of relationships between two people. The whole meaning of life for the older married couple - who by and large have nothing to say to each other - becomes the young couple who, from duty and politeness, go through these regular family visits to their parents. And so the meeting becomes a gruelling tradition and regular conversation narrows down to limited phrases and mere observing of a condition and of feelings without a modicum of interest. The visit ends with everyone falling asleep.
THE GARDEN PARTY (ZAHRADNÍ SLAVNOST, 1963)
6 men, 3 women
A play in four acts
It was with this play, a classic and irrepressiblly comic example of the Czech brand of absurd theatre written in 1963, that Havel became internationally known.
The officials of Inauguration Services are in a state of war with employees of the Liquidation Office. Both bureaucratic institutions have become so empty of meaning that to control them it is quite enough just to speak thier language. Hugo manages not only to get into their garden party and their secrets, but also to find their points of contact. The height of his triumph comes when he is appointed head of the Central Comittee for Inauguration and Liquidation. Hugo is prototype of the adaptable offspring of totalitarian - and other - regimes, who understand that „only someone who in certain situation knows not to exist, can exist all the better in another situation."
THE MEMORANDUM (VYROZUMNĚNÍ, 1965)
9 men, 3 women
A play in twelve scenes
One of the three "office" plays from the famous era of Havel‘s work with the Theatre on the Balustrades in 60s. One morning Gross, a director, finds a memorandum on his desk in a foreign language. His secretery explains that without his knowledge a new clerical language has been introduced - ptydepe, designed to guarantee the clarity of official correspondence. Gross is replaced by his ambitious deputy, but with the help of the secretary of the translating department he finally manages to discover that the memorandum is actually praising him for his refusal of the languge as something confused and inhuman. Gross is reinstalled in his function, but soon another language demands his attention.
The word "ptydepe" has entered the Czech language to describe absurd bureaucratic psuedolanguage, just as Karel Čapek and his R.U.R. introduced the word "robot."
THE INCREASED DIFFICULTY OF CONCENTRATION (ZTÍŽENÁ MOŽNOST SOUSTŘEDĚNÍ, 1968)
4 men, 4 women
A play in two acts
Scientific researcher Eduard Huml has to dodge between the demands of his wife and his mistress, promising each of them that at the next opportunity he is going to finish with Her. At the same time he is unsuccessfully making a play for his secretary Blanka, to whom he is dictating his new work, a textbook on the theme of human happiness. One day, some sociologist burst into his flat with a new discovery - a kind of a prototype of a computer (the play was written in 1968) called a puzuk, which by analysing one human individual is supposed to come to general conclusion. Unfortunately it is such a sensitive and capricious instrument that it is unable to function meaningfully in Huml's flat. It seems more as if Huml's household and Huml himself are beginning to resemble the jammed computer...
GUARDIAN ANGEL (ANDĚL STRÁŽNÝ, 1968)
A play for radio in one act.
2 men
The artist Vavák, shy and passive, is attacked in a literal sense during a visit from Machoň, a fan of his. The startled Vavák becomes the victim of Machoň's interest, of his increasing tendency to control the artist's life style and ideas through his own phantasmagorical fictions and inventions. In Machoň's eyes, these can bring the master's work "to perfection". He finds it necessary to become a part of Vavák's personality - which he actually smothers under his self-confident behaviour, which turns into violent terror. In the end the unstable and insecure Vavák succumbs to the attack. First broadcast in 1968 on Czech Radio.
THE BUTTERFLY ON THE AERIAL (MOTÝL NA ANTÉNĚ, 1968)
Television play
2 men, 2 women
A gentle satire on Havel's generation of 1960s intellectuals. The dramatist Jeník is celebrating his 30th birthday with his wife Marie and her mother. His landlord Bašta, a plumber, is snoozing in an arm chair. The sound of dripping water begins to penetrate from the next room. Jeník's mother-in-law warns against the threat of a flood, but Jeník and Marie are too busy creating a play in which no one is able to prevent the flow of water. Mr. Bašta is having a terrible dream with the same content: "Turn the tap off!" he cries in his sleep. Marie's mother does so and saves the household. However, Jeník and Marie go on enthusing over their wonderful subject. Thus, the butterfly on the television aerial is the image Mr. Bašta best remembers from his only partially absurd dream.
V.H. wrote the play in 1968, and in 1991 it was directed for Czechoslovak Television by Ladislav Smoljak, when it received a TV award.
CONSPIRATORS (SPIKLENCI, 1971)
A play in fifteen scenes
12 men, 5 women
The first play Havel wrote (1971) after the occupation of Czechoslovakia is not one of his favourites. It was produced for the first time in the Czech Republic by Andrej Krob with his Theatre on the Road in 1992. This production de facto rehabilitated the play and returned it to the Havel "canon". It is "a political allegory about government, power and human nature in 15 scenes" (Carol Rocamora). In an unnamed country, once governed as a colony, the cruel dictator Oláh is in exile after recently being unseated by a courageous and honourable revolutionary movement. A democratic government is now led by a benign and compassionate Prime Minister. Meanwhile, however, several kingpins of the regime - in the army, judicial system, security and censorship - have begun to worry about the stability of the new democracy. Rumours spread that Oláh is still alive. Someone has the idea to found a Revolutionary Council for the protection of democracy. According to other rumours in the country a conspiracy really has arisen with the aim of overpowering the authorities. To confront it, in spite of its original intentions, the Council becomes a secret organisation. Its activities begin to develop in an unlawful direction and the alliance starts to crumble. In the end the Council is suspected by the public of being in sympathy with Oláh - and so the anti-conspiracy conspirators resolve that in the interests of the country it will be better if Oláh is allowed back to ensure national security.
THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (ŽEBRÁCKÁ OPERA, 1972)
8 men, 9 women
On a theme by John Gay
For a long time it was Havel‘s last play performed on Czech soil (only once, thanks to the police, by Havel's friends in the Divadlo na tahu theatre in 1975).
Unlike Gay's original and Brecht's version, Havel's play does not have any songs and music, nor does it have a romantic side (replaced on the whole by a cynical humor). The marriage fraudster Macheath and the ostentantiously burgeois Peachum are the heads of two rival crime gangs, of which Peachum's is also in league with the police. Macheath tries in vain to liquidate his opponent, or to infiltrate his organisation. Only when he understands the rules of the game does he look out for his own interests... He also becomes a police informer, but it is only a shadow of the former Mackie.
AUDIENCE (1975)
2 men
A one-act play
Vanek the writer, in many ways an affectionately ironic portrait of Václav Havel, was originally a character in a play by Havel‘s friend Pavel Landovský, Cleaning Night. For Audience, "a little play written to amuse my friends" Havel borrowed Vanek and made him into the "eternal dissident" who wanders not only through Havel‘s one-act plays but through other plays by Pavel Landovský, Pavel Kohout and Jiří Dienstbier. Audience has remained the most well known of these.
Vanek, deprived of the means of legally practising his profession, is now employed in a brewery (as was Havel) and has to deal with the various temptations put forward by the brewer under whom he works, and who is trying to gain Vanek for a peculiar kind of cooperation with the powers above - to write his own reports for the secret police on his activities instead of the brewer doing it, to inform upon himself, and thus to gain control over their control... Vanek finally turns down the offer for reasons of principle, and thus provokes an angry reaction from an "ordinary man." However, both Vanek and his much more primitive opponent are overwhelmed by the same sadness, caused by the conditions of their totalitarian lives...
PRIVATE VIEW (VERNISÁŽ, 1975)
2 men, 1 women
A one-act play
Chronologically the second of Havel‘s Vanek one-act plays, this takes the writer on a visit to some friends, a married couple who show him their new flat, whose furnishing has demanded no small sacrifice. They try to convince him to follow their example. It becomes more and more clear that recognition and acceptance of their outlook is supposed to legitimise their way of life, which is more or less collaboration with the regime. Vanek‘s polite and diffident refusal provokes unexpected agression in both husband and wife.
PROTEST (1978)
2 men
A one-act play
This time, Vanek‘s opposite number is another writer, one whose silence has been bought by the regime in exchange for being allowed to continue publishing. However, the regime has clearly not bought his future son-in-law, who has been arrested as a member of the musical underground. Stanek is persuading his visitor Vanek that a petition should be organised for the release of the musicians, when, however, Vanek puts before him a petition which he has already prepared, and is ready for Stanek to sign. Apologetically, Stanek explains why it would be better if his name did not appear among the signatories. The news that the young musician has been released comes as a happy end to an otherwise bitter tale of the failure of an intellectual.
MOUNTAIN HOTEL (HORSKÝ HOTEL, 1976)
9 men, 4 women
A play in five acts
A count whispers sweet nothngs into ear of a lady from the Champs-Elysées, but she has never been to Paris... A married man covers himself with sun cream, singing a song from doctor Zhivago over and over again, and consulting his wife about the development of his relationship with the hotel waitress... The director of the hotel and his deputy keep changing places, and each distances himself from the acivities of his predecessor... Somewhere in the distance a train whistles continually, and everybody looks at their watches and confronts the time. Suddenly the characters start to exchange speeches, and the resulting babble is as frightening as it is comic- and also infiltrated with sadness.
THE MISTAKE (CHYBA, 1983)
5 men
A one-act play
The only of Havel‘s plays to reflect on his experiences from his long years in prison is also his shortest. It was originaly shown together with "Catastrophe", a play which Samuel Beckett wrote for Havel.
Xiboj, the newest addition to the prison cell, lights up a cigarette. However, smoking before breakfast is forbidden, and King, the boss, tries to bring him to order. When Xiboj fails to react to even the severest threats, one of the prisoners declares: „He must be a Hungarian or something -" „That‘s his mistake" - King replies, and the play ends with a threatening circle bodies closing in around Xiboj.
LARGO DESOLATO, 1984
9 men, 3 women
play with seven scenes
Although the play, written in 1984, describes the tortured state of its hero as he awaits imprisonment, it was actually inspired, as Havel has said more than once, by his own feelings on geing set free.
The philosopher Leopold Kopřiva is in one sense an extension of the dramatic existence of Vanek the writer, a character who in time became the embodiment of anti-regime dissidence and its hope, and in another sense he is an unbalanced man, whos chaotic personal life recalls that of the hero of The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, Eduard Huml, or even Macheath. He finally sees that there is only one way out from the unbearably burdensome waiting which binds him to the people around him, but also from complete strangers, lovers and admirers, from the pressure of the police, who want to morally break him - and this way out is his own imprisonment. However, the all-powerful state denies him this redemption; he is sentenced to further freedom, and to more life with other people and himself.
TEMPTATION (POKOUŠENÍ, 1985)
9 men, 3 women
A play in ten scenes
The story of Dr. Foustka, a researcher in scientific institute whose task is to protect and spread „scientific world opinion," is a parody and at the same time perhaps a seriously meant variation on the archetypal story of the apprentice who sells his soul to the devil. His name is only really a diminutive of Faust‘s name, and his desire for knowledge is also only a weak shadow of the obsession of Goethe‘s hero. Is this the end of the myth of modern man? Dr. Foustka does not even meet with the mighty Mephistopheles, but only with Fistula, a pensioner who is trying to hide his magical activity from the eyes of ever-present secret police. Foustka ( with his help?) bewitches the secretary, Markéta, but suddenly finds himself under suspicion of activity incompatible with the goals of the institute. He protects himself by saying that he had only entered into partnership with Fistula in order to inform his superiors of Fistula‘s activity. He betrays Markéta, who wants to help him, and accuses lover Vilma of being an informer... At an institute party, the head of the institute finally confronts him with Fistula, his loyal co-worker. Foustka ultimately realises that hell equals the existing powers - his fiery defence, however, provokes only devilish laughter.
REDEVELOPMENT (ASANACE, 1987)
8 men, 6 women
A play in five scenes
The heroes of what is as yet the last of Havel‘s "major" plays, written in 1987, are a group of architects living in medieval castle while they plan the tidying up of neglected town below them. A delegation from the town requests that the redevelopment be cancelled, saying it would destroy their natural enviroment. This starts a discussion flowing between the architects on the meaning of modern architecture... However, it becomes clear that the most important person in the castle is not the chief architect, but a mysterious secretary. He locks the delegation in the dungeons and orders that the project be continued. The situation then suddenly changes with the arrival of an inspector, who announces that the architect will have complete creative freedom. The celebrations are endless and the barriers between people come down - it seems that paradise on the earth is at hand. Until, that is, another inspector arrives, brands the first one an amateur and reestabilishes the old order. The architect‘s depression after this sudden reversal is deep and clearly long-lasting. The new inspector tries in vain to rouse them to new attempts and to new "thinking". The play ends with the suicide of one of the heroes, who jumps from a tower "from unrequited love," as the castle‘s legend warns. Redevelopment is a satire on the deadening effects of any sorts attempt at the central managment of society - and also a symbolic condensation of Czech history of the last quarter of a century.
TOMORROW! (ZÍTRA TO SPUSTÍME, 1988)
12 men, 6 women
A historical meditation in five acts
Havel's first play in 20 years that had its public premiere - though anonymously as a part of a Brno theatre project - in pre-revolution Czechoslovakia. In 1988 it recalled the non-traditional way in which the events leading to the estabilishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918 took place, and at the same time became an unwitting prophecy.
Its hero is Alois Rašín, a young Czech politician who became the spirit of the 1918 revolution. On its eve, he and his wife are considering not only the best tactics for a peaceful revolution, but the future of the newly emerging state. His view is complemented by a group of actors reconstructing later events as comedy and documentary, and recalling the nightmare of future developments in Central Europe.
Václav Havel - Karel Brynda
THE LIFE BEFORE HIM (MILLS) (ŽIVOT PŘED SEBOU /MLÝNY/, 1958)
8 men, 1 woman
We have chosen, from other texts co-written by Václav Havel, the famous farce which, long ago while on military service, Havel and his mates entered in a competition for military artistic creativity. Proper attention was devoted to it in 1991 by the SKLEP Theatre company who gave the text a new form and the title Mills under which it is known today.
Private Maršík nods off on duty. He is woken by a shot. It turns out it came from his own gun - his fellow in arms has by mistake shot an intruder with it. Both of them, scared, agree on a cover manoeuvre: they claim that Maršík is the one to have fired the shot. Later he is decorated, promoted and even invited to join the Communist Party. Maršík is so eager to provide satisfaction that, during the meeting which is to accept him into the Party, he collapses and confesses the truth. His military career is in ruins, his life - one feels like saying, a life in truth, to today's informed audience - he does indeed have in front of him. Havel's theme is very plain, even in this youthful practical joke.
LEAVING (ODCHÁZENÍ, 2007)
11 men, 6 women, 1 voice
A play in five acts
Václav Havel's first play after twenty years touches on the household of Dr. Vilém Rieger, retiring from politics. It is plain that the former chancellor's electoral period has come to an end and that a question mark hangs over his continued residence in the government villa surrounded by a large cherry orchard. It is equally plain that neither Rieger nor those around him, under the firm control of Irena, a friend of long-standing, have neglected to provide for themselves. Meanwhile, his broader family deviates only marginally from its customary course. In addition to Irena, the "family" is made up of her unassuming friend Monika, realistic Granny, the domestic help Osvald, and Rieger's younger daughter Zuzana, permanently engrossed in electronic communication with her own generation. Other figures however saunter through the villa: the journalists Jack and Bob, working for the ubiquitous daily Fuj (Fye), who have come to subject Rieger to an all-embracing evaluative interview. Bea, a young writer, brings the book she has written about Rieger to show to her hero. Hanuš, Rieger's former secretary, is conscientiously compiling an inventory of the villa to protect Rieger against any suspicion that he might be intending to hang on to this or that item of state property. Meanwhile, Hanuš's former secretary Viktor gradually and unobtrusively turns into Rieger's link with the governmental establishment assuming power. The new government is represented by the Vice-Chairman, Vlastík Klein, by all accounts an astute businessman with the fate of the villa very much on his heart. However, for the most part it is the gardener Knobloch who keeps Rieger informed ("Lads down pub was talking 'bout removal..."). The catastrophic news is soon confirmed: Rieger's family have to vacate the house.
This news sets off the visible collapse of Rieger's "court", a collapse which has been under way for some time. Rieger's older married daughter Vlasta offers her father a roof over his head - naturally, on condition that Rieger transfers his property to her family. The secretary Viktor complies with Vlastík Klein's request by turning a trunk containing old private documents over to the "inter-ministerial commission for history", after Rieger had given orders for it to be burnt. On top of that, Vlastík Klein comes up with a "business proposal": Rieger will be allowed to rent the villa back on the understanding he will give his support to the new government through the media. He has just one day to think it over.
It turns out however that Rieger's personality itself is disintegrating. Whilst for the interview he recapitulates the principles and achievements of his politics, his current language and his buck-passing reaction to Irena's factual notesare proof that the chancellor is now powerless and that he had abdicated his former role of a statesman. Not even his private life bears examination: for example, he forgets the anniversary of his relationship with Irena - and worse still: is caught by Irena in Bea's embrace.
The pace of events soon speeds up: a court orderis delivered to Rieger ordering him to move to "a village one hundred versts from here". Vlasta rescinds her offer of accommodation. Instead of publishing the interview provided, the Fuj journalists print fictitious details of Rieger's private life. Irena wants to throw herself off a cliff, but Monika holds her back. Viktor accepts a position in the office of the new government. Osvald is ready to work as a domestic help with the neighbouring Ragulins, but keeps on falling asleep at all the wrong moments. A storm breaks out, in which Rieger momentarily turns into a mad King Lear tormented by a phantasmagorical whirlwind of characters and rejoinders. At the end of this he is arrested, led away and ridiculed: it turns out that the details of his intimate correspondence, kept in the incriminating trunk, have already become public property.
The following day the shattered Rieger returns home after having "signed something" for the police. The carriage to take him to the village is waiting, and Vlastík Klein has come round with his own business plans which involve taking possession of the villa. Zuzanka provides some hope for Rieger: they could all take refuge with her French friend. Even he however immediately becomes an object of attention for the police. Klein offers Rieger a way out: he can have a job as adviser to an adviser to an adviser of the new government - in fact, as adviser to the former secretary of his former secretary. The press campaign against Rieger gathers pace. It is time to make a public announcement. In a long, typically Havelesque and logically brilliant closing monologue, Rieger defends his decisions. To become adviser at a time when world events are being managed by omnipotent advisers is not humiliating at all; for Rieger, it represents an honourable opportunity to continue his life's work. His speech is interrupted only by the last of the faithful, including Irena, abandoning the former Chancellor. In the end, he can only look on as his previous admirer Bea begins to circle round her new idol, Vlastík Klein.
In Leaving, Havel - as in his earlier play Redevelopment, completed twenty years ago - constructs an artificial (and sadly entertaining) theatrical world. The ironic settling of accounts with the departing first post-Communist political establishment and the caustic view of the rise of the subsequent real-capitalist generation is permeated with playful references to Chekhov's Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare's King Lear. The theatrical quality of the text is underlined by the constant presence of the author's Voice, adding directorial instructions and an ironic commentary on his own dramatic methods and their limits.
The draft English translation by Paul Wilson. The negotiations are currently underway for the play to be translated into several major languages.
The script was published in book form in November 2007 by Respect Publishing.
The world premiere of the production, directed by David Radok, took place on May 22, 2008 at the ARCHA Theatre in Prague.
The experience of politics have enriched Mr Havel, a master in de-masking empty rhetoric, by offering new opportunities. Clichés such as "a consideration in long-term perspective" or "we would introduce jobs that might lead to reduction in unemployment" are typical representatives of political "ptydepe" (artificial language proposed by Havel in his play, The Memorandum).
Kateřina Kolářová: Havlovo odcházení se zdařilo, idnes.cz 12.11.2007
Leaving is a typical Havel construct not only through its inner links to the Cherry Orchard (...) or King Lear on the level of lines or motives but also through its reference to the author's other plays. From these, we know the ways lines connect, or the gradually developing journeys of objects, their returns, variations on dramatic situations, lines moving from one character to another, surprises in the use of particular words (e. g. the connotation in the text of the word Bumblebee: take it whatever way you can) or small habits of the character turned on their heads...
Marta Ljubková: Návrat v Odcházení, A2, č.49/2007
Other plays in whose authorship VH shared:
V.H., Miloš Macourek: THE BEST ROCK (YEARS) OF MRS. HERMANOVÁ
V.H., Ivan Vyskočil: HITCHHIKE
V.H., Karel Steigerwald, Miki Jelínek: WE ARE A SPECIAL TANGLE OF BEINGS