Event

Vaclav Havel's Vanek

Eastenders Repertory Company returns to the JCC with three Vanek plays: Audience, Unveiling and Protest by former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel. This 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 and Unveiling after his release to entertain a small gathering of fellow writers, all of whom had their work banned in their native countries. In Audience, Vanek has a bleakly absurd and comical encounter with his boss; in Unveiling, he visits a frighteningly conformist and avidly consumerist couple; and in Protest, Vanek confronts his friend, a successful TV writer, to convince him to sign an anti-government petition.

SPECIAL PROGRAM
On Monday May 5 and Wednesday May 7, 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.

Admission to the SPECIAL PROGRAM is the same cost as the regular ticket.