Event

Vaclav Havel's Vanek: Special Program

Eastenders Repertory Company returns to the JCC with the Vanek play Audience by former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel. This work (part of a trilogy) centers on the author's fictional alter ego Ferdinand Vanek, who, like the playwright-turned-statesman Havel, worked in a brewery before being jailed as a political dissident. Imprisoned for four years in the mid-1970s, Havel wrote Audience after his release to entertain a small gathering of fellow writers, all of whom had their work banned in their native countries. In the play, Vanek has a bleakly absurd and comical encounter with his boss. At this SPECIAL PROGRAM, Audience will be presented together with the readings of works by Pavel Kahout, Pavel Landovsky and Jiri Dienstbier, playwrights who all devised their own dramas about Vanek. These readings will be followed by a moderated discussion about the role of the artist in a politically repressive regime.

NOTE: Audience will be presented at the JCC in conjunction with two other Vanek plays--Unveiling and Protest--on May 1, 3, 4, 15, 17 and 18.