Vaclav Havel’s play is a great success / Havlova hra se stala velkym uspechem

The opening night of ex-president Vaclav Havel’s new play Odchazeni (Leaving) turned out to be a great success. It is a story of a prominent politician who is ending his term in the office and all of the drama that goes with it. In this particular play was Havel inspired by such masterpieces as Cechov’s Cherry Orchard or Shakespeare’s King Lear. The play preparations went very smooth until the lead actress, Dagmar Havlova (Havel’s current wife), quit due to health reasons.

The whole thing is peculiar and sad at the same time as her part was written by Havel specifically for Dagmar. Havel’s only condition for production of this play was for Dagmar to have it’s leading role and then she decides tocall it the quits…hmm….Besides seeing the play, which is performed at the Archa theater, the visitors can also view the exhibition of the original manuscript – a set of 5 old fashioned school notebooks (supposedly they are full of ugly scratches!).

The play was such a bell-ringer that it is going to be performed in the theaters world-wide including in New York and Washington.

CZ: Premiera Havlovy hry Odchazeni v prazskem divadle Archa se setkala s mimoradnym uspechem. Hra vypravi o kancleri, ktery konci svou vladu a s nim se take hrouti jeho cely dvur. Mezi lidmi, kterymi se vladce obklopuje se nachazeji zname sterotypy zradce, patolizala..atd. Havel se pry pri psani teto hry inspiroval veledily jako je Shakespearuv Kral Lear, nebo Cechuv Visnovy sad. Drama celych zkouzkovych priprav vyvrcholilo, kdyz z projektu odstopila Havlova manzelka Dagmar – pry ze zdravotnich duvodu. Je to trosku smutne, protoze Havel napsal tuto roli prave pro ni, Dagmarino angazma bylo dokonce jednou z podminek uvedeni hry. Mimo jine muzou navstevnici hry take shlednout puvodni predlistopadovou verzi Odchazeni – vesla se do 5-ti linkovanych sesitu formatu A4 (pry jsou plne skaredych skrtancu!).

Hra mela takovy zdar, ze se v budoucnosti objevi na tisice dalsich jevistich nejen v Cechach, ale take v zahranici vcentne New Yorku a Washingtonu.

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/magazin/divadlo_lit/index_view.php?id=313887