It was not the first time actors at the Hradec theatre were confronted with a theatre aesthetics and point of view as formulated by Mr Krob during his many years work as director: he already staged here Havel’s plays Temptation and Memorandum. But he says Leaving is quite different in some ways from the previous Havel’s dramatic output. “Its structure is more open, allowing for a larger scope in developing extra-textual elements.” The main innovation Krob introduced to the short history of the play’s staging is casting Jiří Zapletal in the role of the author’s Voice – the play was performed both in the Prague Radok production and in the London one directed by Sam Walters with the authentic voice commentary recorded by the author.
“I have an urge to keep stressing we are performing a play by Havel rather than a play about Havel. Havel did not write about himself or his wife Dáša, nor did he write about [the current president] Klaus or the other outlaws of the political stage. I see his play as a parable about the fall of a man who always wanted to do the best for the society but whose voice had been nowadays silenced. He is not being heard by anybody anymore, everybody ignores him, he has to look for attention. That was one more reason to make the role written by Havel as a mere author’s Voice into a full-blown stage character. He, too, is seeking and doubting, trying to understand the meaning of his own play and his own place in it,” the director of the Hradec production explains.
He went on to sum his approach to working with actors: “Absurdity has to be played seriously. Only then can we shudder during Havel’s tightrope walking wordplays that often seem full of laughter and smile on the surface.”