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

392
BARBARA DAY
Prague, Michell spent hours with Havel discussing the play and listening
to conversations between Havel and his "dissident" companions.
Temptation had been produced in Vienna early in 1986 and flopped.
The production is said to have been portentously heavy, with emphasis
on symbolic meanings. Michell, under Havel's guidance, approached the
play differently. However, for the time being he concealed one matter
from Havel; that the play, conceived for a proscenium arch stage, would
be performed in-the-round.
The Other Place is the smallest of the three theatres in Stratfordupon-Avon belonging to the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is a temporary
corrugated iron hall, and the night I saw Temptation, heavy rain drummed
on the roof. But this kind of roughness often engenders an increased alertness in an audience, a greater awareness of detail and implication. (In Peter
Brook's words, "a beautiful place may never bring about explosion of life,
while a haphazard hall may be a tremendous meeting place."7 For Temptation, the audience sits round the four sides of the stage, whose three exitstwo at adjacent corners, and the third at the center of the opposite sidegive the stage a Y-shaped focus. On leaving the stage, the actors are visible
till they pass through the doors giving onto the space shared by performers
and audience. Furniture-chairs for the Institute, a desk and rug for Foustka,
a bed for Vilma-is carried on and off by the actors. Other elements of
scenery, mainly used in the party scenes, are let down from the flies: tree
branches, Chinese lanterns, bizarre decorations. For the first two scenes
in the Institute, an elaborate chandelier is suspended overhead.
There are four locations in Temptation: Dr. Foustka's study; the
Institute where he works; the bedroom of his mistress and colleague Vilma,
and the garden where the Institute holds its socials. There is a large cast,
making the play difficult for any but a major company; even the Royal
Shakespeare Company cut the non-speaking roles of the Lovers, and had
to cast a young actress as Mrs. Houbova, Foustka's wise old landlady.*
All but one of the other characters are on the staff of the Institute, and
are introduced in the first scene: the tight-faced Director, shadowed by
his Secretary; the sycophantic Deputy, accompanied by his seemingly
dumb companion Petruska**; the five researchers, Vilma, Lorencova,
Neuwirth, Kotrly and Foustka; and Maggie, the little blonde secretary.
All these characters assemble in the first scene to be told by the
Director (Paul Webster) that their Institute is not "fulfilling its tasks in
keeping with the present situation" and that it must "try and implement
a programme of extensive educational, popular-scientific and individually
therapeutic activity..." which will counteract "various irrational viewpoints"
*And therefore having to cut her line: "- why, I remember you as a three-year-old...."
**As played by Shirley King in the Stratford production, a plump redhead of uncertain years.