Perpetuum Havel

About

They are virtually invisible and nameless, yet those in powerful fear them. The inconspicuous heroes who have dared to confront tyrannical regimes and make their voices heard. While they are unlikely to make it to a magazine cover, their stories of courage and determination spread uncontrollably, as modern fables secretly whispered in people’s kitchens and living rooms. Their stories give others hope that the world might become a better place, even if just a little bit. They shed rays of light into absolute darkness. Ever more such women writers, journalists, students, artists, workers, and others raise across totalitarian states.

One of them was Václav Havel, a playwright and a well-known dissident who spent many years in jail as a political prisoner before being elected to the presidential office. In early 1989, he wrote a letter to his wife from his cell, where he conceived an absurd farce about the routines of a convict. This is the only Havel’s text where the author gives notes for a nonverbal theatre piece.

The libretto titled Perpetuum mobile came to the hands of director Petr Boháč, who is preparing a production narrating the story of a nameless prisoner, to be portrayed by performer Roman Zotov-Mikshin. In addition to Havel’s text and his experience from prison, the production draws inspiration from the personal testimony of Belarusian prisoner of conscience Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, the art installations and narratives by Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei, and oral statements made by current Russian political prisoners in courtrooms.