Václav Havel’s Vanek to Go on Stage in Tehran

TEHRAN.(Iranart) – Iranian director Bahar Mahmudzadeh will stage Vanek based on Czech playwright Václav Havel’s Vanek plays at Tehran’s Sepand Hall on June 30.

The play is derived from Havel’s best-known works, and the character Vanek, who first appeared in the play Audience in 1975, soon became a symbol for Czechoslovak dissidents during the Communist era.

Vanek is an opposition playwright who is forced to work in a brewery because his writing has been banned by the Czechoslovak Communist regime. 

Havel also used the character in the plays Unveiling (1975), about a couple who desperately want Vanek to absolve them for their collaborative relationship with the Communist regime, and Protest (1978) in which Vanek tries to convince an old colleague to sign a protest letter.

As a symbolic character, a number of Czech writers used Vanek in their plays. Havel himself wrote a short modern sequel to Unveiling entitled Dozens of Cousins in 2010.

Havel was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). He wrote more than 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, which have been translated internationally.

Bahareh Rahnama, Ali Oji, Danial Kheirikhah and Mohammad Zavvar are the main members of the cast for the play, which will remain on stage until July 22.

Source: Tehran Times