Prague, Oct 4 (CTK) – The plate reading “Václav Havel Square” was unveiled on the piazzetta of the National Theatre on Tuesday at the opening of the Prague Crossroads international theatre festival in memory of the late Czech president Havel, held on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth.
Besides, an installation by sculptor Kurt Gebauer was unveiled there. It is shaped as a giant red heart on which people can write messages. It alludes to Havel’s favourite symbol of heart that he added to his signature.
The first to sign the heart were Havel’s widow, actress Dagmar Havlova, actress and dissident Vlasta Chramostova, Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO) and National Theatre general director Jan Burian.
“Vasek [diminutive of Vaclav], come back,” Havlova wrote.
The Prague councillors approved the new name of the little square in late September. This place is to accentuate Havel’ role of a playwright.
Besides this place, the international airport in Prague bears Havel’s name and a number of “Havel’s Places” or benches, consisting of two garden armchairs and a round table with a tree in the middle, have been unveiled in Czech and foreign towns.
The Crossroads festival, subtitled “To Havel With Love” and prepared by the National Theatre, will introduce theatre groups from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine who are fighting for freedom by their performances in their home countries.
A honorary guest to the festival will be Belarusian investigative journalist and writer Svetlana Alexievich, critic of the Soviet and post-Soviet era in Russia, who was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The festival programme will also offer debates and screenings of photographs from Havel’s life. His dramas staged by Czech directors can be seen at various scenes of the National Theatre at the weekend.
Apart from Prague, Havel as a playwright will be remembered in Brno, the second largest Czech town, where a festival dedicated to him started on Tuesday and it will take place till October 10.
In Plzen, west Bohemia, the 24-hour reading of Havel’s texts started at the Vaclav Havel Bench in a local park on Tuesday. It ends on Havel’s birthday on Wednesday.
On the same day, a rally in memory of Havel will be staged on Wenceslas Square in Prague centre.
Playwright and dissident Havel, born on October 5, 1936, was the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president (1989-2003). After he left the post, he primarily focused on the promotion of human rights in the world. He died on December 18, 2011, aged 75 years.
