Contemporary Czech plays, along with four commentaries by their authors, are presented in this volume. The plays share the same protagonist, the "dissident" writer, Ferdinand Vanek. When Vaclav Havel first invented his fictional playwright to entertain his friends in 1975, he had no idea that Vanek would be "taken over" by three of them - all real Czech writers. Between them, Havel, Pavel Kohout, Pavel Landovsky, and Jiri Dienstbier have made what Havel has called the "Vanek principle" into a public property. The plays explore the "realism of the strange", mixing fact and fiction, levity and seriousness. While Vanek...Read more
Contemporary Czech plays, along with four commentaries by their authors, are presented in this volume. The plays share the same protagonist, the "dissident" writer, Ferdinand Vanek. When Vaclav Havel first invented his fictional playwright to entertain his friends in 1975, he had no idea that Vanek would be "taken over" by three of them - all real Czech writers. Between them, Havel, Pavel Kohout, Pavel Landovsky, and Jiri Dienstbier have made what Havel has called the "Vanek principle" into a public property. The plays explore the "realism of the strange", mixing fact and fiction, levity and seriousness. While Vanek says little in the plays, his silence is an eloquent retort to the falsehoods of bureaucratic language and jargon. The Vanek plays have been staged in many European countries as well as the United States. With the exception of the three plays by Havel, these translations have been especially prepared for this volume. "The Vanek plays" will be of interest to students of contemporary theatre, producers, directors, and anyone concerned with the deep divisions of our modern world and literature's response to it.
- ISBN10 0774802677
- ISBN13 9780774802673
- Publish Date 1 January 1995
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 October 2003
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint University of British Columbia Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 564
- Language English
