The Challenges, Paradoxes and Plays of Václav Havel: The Rogues of Horní Počernice
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: November 3, 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
Václav Havel wrote his own version of The Beggar’s Opera in 1972. Producing it at Czech professional theatres was out of the question for political reasons so Andrej Krob and the Divadlo na tahu theatre company tried to perform it in the hall of a pub in Horní Počernice for his and the author’s friends.
The atmosphere of this unlikely world premiere of a Havel play is recalled by participants, excerpts from a recording of the performance, the photographs of Bohdan Holomíček, a short documentary film by Andrej Krab and a new publication issued by the VHL, Gauneři z Horních Počernic (The Rogues of Horní Počernice).
This series dedicated to Václav Havel’s plays is prepared by Anna Freimanová.
Gauneři z Horních Počernic (The Rogues of Horní Počernice) is the title of a commemorative publication primarily featuring the photographs of Bohdan Holomíček and Ondřej Němec, previously unpublished letters by Václav Havel and period documents. The book, which will be presented during the evening, is being published by the Václav Havel Library in connection with the 40th anniversary of an amateur performance of Václav Havel’s play whose perpetrators and audience were pursued by the StB secret police.
Photo (c) Bohdan Holomíček