Audiencia

Audiencia is one of the most important texts that Václav Havel wrote during his dissident period. With humor, the author reveals the psychology of reporting, loyalty, fear, but also the absurdity of the totalitarian regime in the Czechoslovakia. A seemingly banal conversation between two men is actually a tense struggle for integrity, dignity and freedom. At the core of the play, the mechanism of the political system is revealed, which can humiliate a person not only physically, but especially morally.

The story takes place in the brewery environment, where the former playwright and intellectual Ferdinand Vaněk works as a worker. His superior, a simple and constantly drunk brewer, invites him to an interview. A formal work inspection turns into a bizarre interview full of paradoxes, blackmail and human weaknesses. One person fills the space with words, the other with silence. The viewer finds himself in a situation where language ceases to be a means of understanding and becomes an instrument of power and manipulation.

Audiencia was created in 1975 and quickly became a symbol of the period of normalization. At that time it was not possible to perform it officially, it was only played in dissident apartments and private spaces. Her strength lies precisely in this: she was a living testimony of what was happening in Czechoslovakia. Through the microworld of the brewery, Havel captured the macroworld of the entire society - a system in which people became deliverers or victims. Today we live in different times, but the game is no less relevant. It shows how easily freedom can be exchanged for comfort, truth for compromise, dignity for the illusion of security. The audience is not only a literary work, but also a historical document that still warns against repeating the mistakes of the past. In 2025, the Praktikábel theater company chose it as its last title, with which it closes the ten-year stage of its activity. Symbolically, on the occasion of the play's 50th anniversary.

Creative team:

• Translation and editing: Matej Feldbauer
• Director: Matej Feldbauer
• Dramaturgy: Dr. Mat Urgia
• Music: Filip Krišš
• Lighting and graphic design: Jakub Branický
• Scene and costumes: Matej Feldbauer