British critics praise Havel's one-act plays

London, Nov 13 (CTK) - British theatre critics praised the London
performance of former Czech president and playwright Václav Havel's one-act
plays, Audience (1978) and Protest (1978), by the Orange Tree theatre.

The theatre prepared the performance within the Havel autumn season that
started in September with the foreign premiere of Havel's last play Leaving.

The protagonist in both plays is a dissident playwright in trouble with the
authorities.

Havel, 72, a playwright and thinker was Czechoslovak president in 1989-92
and Czech president in 1993-2003. His latest play The Leaving had a world
premiere in Prague this spring.

Under the previous regime, Havel was a leading dissident. He spent many
months in communist prisons.

By showing the two plays again Orange Tree returned the public back to
Czechoslovakia of the 1970s, the daily Financial Times wirtes.

Both plays probe into the troubled liberal conscience and slippery paths of
concessions, it says.

The logic of Protest is fascinating and disturbing and describes the
difficult position of dissidents. It gives people a reason to think, the
daily says.

The play is evidently based on Havel's experience, The Guardian writes. The
paper gives the play three stars out of five.

Both Protest and Audience sadly show why people secretly hated dissidents.
At the same time they prove Havel's skill with which he analysed the
disorder created by the dissidents, the paper says.

The critic in The Times also gives the performance three stars.

The author says both plays were bitterly witty and boiling with a calm
anger. Protest's attack on hypocrisy is still very urgent, the paper says.

The Evening Standards gave the Audience/Protest performance four starts in
contrast with the Living which did not receive much praise from the paper.

Havel, 72, a playwright, thinker and former leading dissident, was
Czechoslovak president in 1989-92 and Czech president in 1993-2003. His
latest play The Leaving had a world premiere in Prague this spring.