Redevelopment - or Slum Clearance - by Václav Havel (1987)
English version by James Saunders (1989)
from a literal translation by Marie Winn
Characters -
| |
ZDENEK BERGMAN, Principal Project Director, fifty-ish
LUISA, architact, about 40
ALBERT, architect, about twenty-five
KUZMA PLEKHANOV, architect (male)
ULCH, architect
MRS MACOURKOVA, architect
RENATA, secretary, about twenty
SPECIAL SECRETARY
FIRST SECRETARY
FIRST INSPECTOR
FIRST DELEGATE
SECOND DELEGATE
FIRST WOMAN
SECOND WOMAN
|
© 1987 Václav Havel (author)
originally published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Gmbh (Reinbeck bei Hamburg)
© 1990 James Saunders (English version)
published by Faber and Faber (London, England), 1990
ISBN-10: 057114265
ISBN-13: 978-0571142651
Redevelopment - by Vaclav Havel [1987] - 6 November 1989, The Monday Play, BBC Radio 4
https://archive.org/details/vaclav-havel-redevelopment-bbc-r-4-1989
Adapted for radio by James Saunders from an original translation by Marie Winn.
Produced by Gordon House.
"A new Inspector of Projects promises his team of architects complete freedom to redevelop a medieval castle town to be something more socially constructive. But how long will this freedom last?"
Martin JARVIS: Zdenek Bergman, Principal Project Director
Penelope WILTON: Luisa, architect, about 40
John MOFFATT: Special Secretary
Kim WALL: Albert, architect, about 25
Cyril SHAPS: Kuzma Plekhanov, architect
Christopher GOOD: Ulch, architect
Karen ASCOE: Renata, secretary
Jo KENDALL: Mrs Macourkova
Kerry SHALE: 1st Inspector
Michael KILGARRIFF: 2nd Inspector
Joe DUNLOP: 1st Delegate
Ken CUMBERLIDGE: 2nd Delegate
Joan MATHESON: Woman
Redevelopment - Vaclav Havel - November 4 to November 25, 2006
Translated by James Saunders from a literal translation by Marie Winn
Directed by Grant Neale
Produced by Nomad Theatrical Company
Presented at the Ohio Theater
"The government has declared that a beautiful old castle should be redeveloped to be something more socially constructive. Protestors and petitioners are jailed. Meanwhile, the architects continue to plan, hoping that there are people left who, unlike them, are idealistic enough to care."
"Written in the time of Perestroika, this play critiqued what Havel saw as the same oppression with a different name. It was the first full length play of his that he was able to see after he became President. He saw it in Iceland, at the Plodlejkhusid Theater, en route to his first official visit to the United States. He is said to have enjoyed the performance, though he does not speak a word of Icelandic."
http://www.untitledtheater.com/redevelopment
"This play was written during a period in Havel's life as he prepared to transition from dissident into elected President of the Czech Republic. Prague was one of the few major cities of Europe that was not significantly damaged by bombing and artillery in WWII. It is today among the most beautiful of Europe's old cities. The Czech national pride of Prague's beauty and tradition is one of the 'unseen actors' of this drama. The drama takes place in a Castle overlooking Prague where 7 or so architects and planners are considering the wisest way to improve the slums of the city. The group has members who are modernist & coldly logical in approach and members who are romantic and concerned with historic beauty and tradition. Planning bureaucrats, still in office from the autocratic Soviet-dominated era, visit the group to confirm that the designers' efforts 'conform' to ideology."
- Jeffrey L. Blackwell, an Amazon contributor
"This is a major work: a dense multi-layered allegory with its roots firmly in reality... It is set in a medieval castle in a historic town in Eastern Europe. Supervised by a state functionary and led by an emotionally chaotic project director, a group of architects struggle to come up with a high-rise building scheme that will destroy the ancient town's character and incidentally clear away its slums. On the realistic level, the play is about a universal architectural dilemma... But it also works as a political metaphor about the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy... This is vintage Havel: creating a work that is both specific and universal, tragic and comic."
- Michael Billington (Guardian)
|