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Dateline: 30th April, 2008
Orange Tree to Premiere New Havel Play The Orange Tree Theatre is presenting the British premiere of Leaving by Vaclav Havel, which has its Czech premiere in Prague in May 2008. Leaving will being previews on 19th September and will have its press nights in the week of September 22. It will form part of a three month Havel Season from 19th September to 13th December, which also includes the British premiere of Mountain Hotel as well as productions of the three Vanek Plays – Audience, Private View and Protest.
The Orange Tree Theatre has had a relationship with Vaclav Havel since 1977 when the theatre presented the British premieres of Audience, Private View and The Memorandum. In the years that followed the theatre also presented Protest, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, Largo Desolato, Redevelopment and The Beggar’s Opera as well as a second production of The Memorandum. The theatre has also involved itself in the politics of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic and in 2007 was invited by the Czech Embassy and the Czech Centre to host a 30 year celebration of Charter 77, which was attended by former President Havel and other distinguished guests who had taken part in the events of the late 70s, as well as those, including Tom Stoppard, who had supported the cause from here.
Leaving is the eagerly awaited first play written by Vaclav Havel since the events of 1989 propelled him into political office. The play concerns the leaving of office of Chancellor Rieger and his eviction from the state villa which has been his home. The play, which has echoes of both King Lear and The Cherry Orchard, addresses the themes of change, dispossession and the passage of power from one generation to the next. Although the subject matter may immediately appear to have an autobiographical element, Havel in fact began work on it in the late 1980s when he could have had no idea that one day, in the very near future, he would be his country’s leader and his play would have to be put on hold. The cast of fifteen will be directed by the Orange Tree’s artistic director Sam Walters.
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