Vaclav Havel in England [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 385-398]

Cross Currents 7 (1988)
A Yearbook of Central European Culture
Vaclav HAVEL IN ENGLAND
Largo desolato
(Bristol New Vie; 9 October-1 November 1986)
Largo desolato
(The Orange Tree in Richmond; 6 February-7 March 1987)
Temptation
(The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon; 22 April 1987- )
Barbara Day
Vaclav Havel's career as a playwright has thus far passed through
three phases; the work with Ivan Vyskocil and Jan Grossman at the Theatre
on the Balustrade in Prague, from 1961 to 1968; the period of writing plays
in relative isolation, from 1970 to his imprisonment in 1979; and the present
time, since his release in 1983.
The early part of the first phase produced three pieces written in collaboration for the performers at the Theatre on the Balustrade: The Hitch-hike
(with Vyskocil), The Best Rock of Mrs. Hermanova (with Milos Macourek)
and The Demented Dove (a poetry collage). When the Theatre on the Balustrade was founded in 1958 most of the company worked without pay for
the enjoyment of creating a new kind of theatre, and this enthusiastic
atmosphere still survived. Anyone, including Havel, could turn his hand
to anything, and productions were devised for the actors taking part. Havel
continued to write on this basis when Jan Grossman consolidated the company, and over the next few years he completed The Garden Party, The
Memorandum and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration. In the middle
of all this, he wrote:
Not long ago, a certain Czech dramatist subscribed to Neruda's manifesto: "I have been happy at everything I have done." I can't say thatI've done many things in my life which were valuable as experience
but which I didn't want to do and can't say I enjoyed. The main
thing is that I'm enjoying what I'm doing now.
The three plays formed part of Jan Grossman's dramaturgical programme,
which included Ionesco and Beckett as well as Grossman's own adaptations
of Jarry's Ubu roi and Kafka's Trial. In 1963, Grossman described the
kind of theatre he wanted as being one which responded to a situation
where people were increasingly limited by fixed systems and where artificial
385