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

HAVEL IN ENGLAND
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Leopold's character is presented "psychologically" the audience is a little
embarrassed; as one reviewer wrote: "He is vain and self-pitying, but at
the same time one cannot help thinking he is entitled to feel a little sorry
for himself."6 In Largo Desolato one should not be feeling sorry for Leopold, but thinking about his situation.
This is all the more true if there are parallels to be seen between Leopold's situation and Havel's own. Havel is the unlikeliest of men to expect
others to feel sorry for him. It is rather the absurdity of the situation that
is being analyzed, and presented in a series of closely related sketches. The
performance of these demands precise timing, building up to the point of
the scene.
The most striking contrast between the two productions occurred
in the sequence where all Leopold's well-wishers enter to offer him increasingly fragmented advice. In the Bristol production this was defined
as a "dream sequence"; the stage lighting was dimmed, and the characters
appeared on the balcony under individual spotlights. At the Orange Tree
the sequence was a natural continuation of the second scene with the two
Lad'as, the characters entering in the same way as they had made their
earlier entrances. Leopold gradually realised the absurdity of his situation,
as events of the previous scenes passed before him in fast motion.
The effect of Largo Desolato is cumulative. Each scene makes a fresh
start and ends in a cul-de-sac. Every positive or optimistic speech or statement becomes worn out with use. The first word of the play is "Finally!"
("Konecne!") and by the end nothing has been resolved.
Temptation, which first appeared in samizdat as no. 223 of the Expedice edition, is a more intricate play. It was translated by George Theiner for
publication in the Nov/Dec 1986 edition of Index on Censorship,* to celebrate the award of the Erasmus Prize to Havel. It was suggested to the
Royal Shakespeare Company as a possible production in the context of
their "new plays' policy," and its inclusion was endorsed by the young
director Roger Michell.
Michell wanted to direct the play not only because he believed in
its intrinsic qualities, but also because of his own attachment to Czechoslovakia where he had spent several years as the son of a diplomatic family.
He brought to the play his own interest in what had happened to the country and its people since the mid-Sixties. Michell recognized that the Western
idea of a dissident-a freedom fighter pitched against a tyrannical power-is
quite different from the Eastern European reality. (A truth also appreciated
by Samuel Beckett, and demonstrated in Catastrophe.**) Returning to
*From which all the quotations in this article are taken.
**Catastrophe was first performed at the Avignon Festival in 1982, and appears in Samuel Beckett's
Collected Shorter Plays (London 1984). It takes place at a rehearsal. The Director and his Assistant
make needed adjustments to the figure of the Protagonist before they can allow him to appear to the
public.