Launch of “almost another Václav Havel play”
The second issue of the Václav Havel Library Notebooks entitled “Instigation and Punishment” (“Podněcování a trest”) has been published. The first release of the Notebooks will take place in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Prague 1) on 9th June from 18:00.
“Instigation and Punishment” is a unique and absurd text. It is the actual court trial record of Václav Havel from February 1989, converted into the form of a theatrical drama - “almost another play by Václav Havel”.
Václav Havel was arrested during the so-called Palach Week in January 1989 and was accused, among other things, of instigation: he mentioned in a certain context on Radio Free Europe the commemoration of Palach’s self-immolation by which, according to the Court, he instigated many Czechoslovakian citizens to come and view the pious prohibited gathering. For this action he was subsequently unconditionally sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment.
The text of the court trial was created in February 1989, thanks to Václav Havel’s sister-in-law, Dagmar Ilkovičová-Havlová, who had made a secret audio recording in the courtroom and rewrote it in the form of a “play” in which the major roles are played by Václav Havel and Judge Helena Hlavatá. The text of “Instigation and Punishment” was prepared for publication in an Expedice edition. Due to the rapid events overtaking it, however, it was then not published. This “play” has now been published by the Václav Havel Library.
The launch of the play will be accompanied by a graphic reading from this “play” by a surprising cast.
Speech to Joint Session of the United States Congress, Washington
„We are still a long way from that „family of man;“ in fact, we seem to be receding from the ideal rather than drawing closer to it. Interests of all kinds: personal, selfish, state, national, group and, if you like, company interests still considerably outweigh genuinely common and global interests. We are still under the sway of the destructive and thoroughly vain belief that man is the pinnacle of creation, and not just a part of it, and that therefore everything is permitted. There are still many who say they are concerdend not for themselves but for the cause, while they are demonstrably out for themselves and not for the cause at all. We are still destroying the planet that was entrusted to us, and its environment. We still close our eyes to the growing social, ethnic and cultural conflicts in the world. From time to time we say that the anonymous megamachinery we have created for ourselves no longer serves us but rather has enslaved us, yet we still fail to do anything about it.“
Václav Havel:
Speech to Joint Session of the United States Congress, Washington
February 21, 1990
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