Czech, please: Havel to attend play's premiere here
The Wilma, under Jiri Zizka, is mounting "Leaving."
Former Czech President Václav Havel and his wife, Dagmar, are planning to attend the May 26 opening night of Leaving, the playwright's first play in 20 years.
Leaving will receive its U.S. premiere production under the Wilma Theater's Jiri Zizka's direction.
David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) stars as ex-chancellor Vilėm Rieger, who (according to the show notes) "confronts large questions of truth and power while he struggles to manage his eccentric family and humorous bevy of functionaries. Allusions from Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare's King Lear invade the Chancellor's consciousness in this wry political tragicomedy."
Zizka, Prague-born like Havel, previously directed the feature film of Havel's Largo Desolato starring F. Murray Abraham, and also directed Havel's Temptation Off-Broadway, with Strathairn in the lead role.