Screening of The Last Cyclist
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: February 28, 2020, 19:00 – 21:00
Virtually unknown in the Czech Republic, Karel Švenk’s satirical and allegorical cabaret comedy The Last Cyclist was created at the Terezín concentration camp but never made it past dress rehearsals.
Jana Šedová, who played Mánička, was the only original cast member to survive the Holocaust. In 1961, with the help of Darek Vostřel, she reconstructed it “from memory”. This version was the basis for a play by American writer Naomi Patz that has been performed many times, particularly at universities in the US and Mexico. A 2017 production by Edward Einhorn at the La MaMa Theater was filmed and will be presented to viewers – almost symbolically – at the Václav Havel Library.
Einhorn, a director and playwright, heads New York’s Untitled Theater #61: A Theater of Ideas, which he set up 25 years ago. His authorial and directorial focus has been marked by two passions: Jewish culture and Theatre of the Absurd. Both gradually led him also to Czech culture. In 2006 he organised the now legendary Havel Festival in New York, during which the complete plays of Václav Havel were performed, most with the author in attendance. Einhorn also organised a festival of Jewish theatre in New York in 2009.
Organised by the Václav Havel Library as part of the 14th edition of the Mene Tekel festival against totalitarianism, evil and violence and for national memory.