Rehearsal for Truth 2019: Audience

Audience centers on a meeting between brewery manager Sladek and employee Vanek. While the manager is clearly opening too many beers and inducing binge drinking, it is less clear what he wants from Vanek. Audience (1975) is the first of Vaclav Havel’s partly autobiographical one-act plays known as the “Vanek Trilogy” (followed by Protest (1978) and Mistake (1983)) based on his experience of being subject to forced work while under constant harassment from the Communist regime. Since the plays were banned in then-Czechoslovakia, they were performed in people’s living rooms and even recorded on vinyl.

The show will be performed in Czech with English supertitles. Talkback after the show will be with director-actor Jakub Spalek and actor Jan Potmesil; afterparty reception will take place at Bohemian National Hall’s Ballroom Bar.