The Free Academy: Vladimír Just on Theatre

The further we get from Havel’s era (and, unfortunately, the values he represented), the more I hear that his plays, essays and attitudes belong to the period from the 1960s to the 1990s, while in the 21st century they feel more like something that was once important but is now an anachronism. Simply put, they were born out of the Communist era – and with its fall their urgency and also relevance faded away. My lecture aims to use specific examples from The Garden Party, The Memorandum and Leaving (and perhaps also The Power of the Powerless) to prove that this is nonsense and prejudice, the refutation of which requires just one thing: re-reading the texts carefully, starting with the very first full-length play, The

Garden Party (1963). It will be surprising to see how their themes have not only not aged but on the contrary have shown an often prophetically clear-sighted prediction of what we are living today, and not only in this country. And, what’s more, that Havel was an author of timeless and global, not just domestic, significance.

Professor Vladimír Just is a Czech Theatre Studies expert and literary and theatre critic. He has been a university teacher since 1994, has served as editor-in-chief of Divadelní revue, has published numerous articles in domestic and international journals and is the author of over 20 books.