[A Vaclav Havel Library Foundation Event] Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival’s 2021 Spring Weekend honoring playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel offers live online readings of contemporary plays penned by award-winning European playwrights from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Seasoned New York City–based actors and directors will perform the readings. The festival will include works by young aspiring playwrights for the first time by featuring the winning plays from the Best Mini-Drama Student Contest.
The 2021 Spring Weekend: Concerning Human Identity presents works by six playwrights who continue Vaclav Havel’s tradition of critical reflection by considering the notions of ethical ambiguity that pervade modern life, regardless of political circumstances. The second virtual edition delves deeper into matters of personal identity that concerned Havel, such as self-understanding and human responsibility.
Theater audiences are invited to follow stories of personal quests for better lives and ponder the topics of immigration, identity, and the American Dream. Several plays employ absurdist humor as they explore issues related to Eastern European transitions to democracy, for example, humankind’s dissolution with reality (Money, The Third Age) or the complexities that impact immigrant identities (Hot Summer of ’68, Change). The festival program also addresses generational passages of trauma (Ghetto Love) and questions the reality of the American Dream (Detroit. The History of a Hand, People’s Toast).“We are delighted to continue the Spring Weekend festival, returning to our global audiences on a virtual stage with our fabulous New York City–based cast. Despite the unprecedented pause in in-person theater worldwide caused by COVID-19, the festival playwrights have continued their examination of fundamental questions of life. This year, they present us with a space for reflection on the crisis of human identity—a theme central to all plays by Vaclav Havel. Theater does not have answers to all of the pressing questions and doubts of our times, but, as Vaclav Havel wrote, ‘theater should always be somewhat suspect.’ We hope that this edition will also open our audience’s imagination to hope, creativity, and empathy.”— Pavla Niklova, Director of the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival
View the full program and more info on the VHLF website HERE.
