With Americans taking to the street against Donald Trump, it's only natural to assume that Mad Cat’s latest production, “Audience” and “Protest,” two plays by Vaclav Havel, the former dissident who became Czechoslovakia’s president is about today’s political climate.
LEFT: Erik Fabregat and Michael Gioia. RIGHT: Erik Fabregat Noah Levine Pete Smith and Michael Gioia (Photos by by Paul Tei).
They would, however, be wrong.
The play was chosen a year ago, says Mad Cat Founder Paul Tei. However, the seeds of today’s political scene were already being sown, and he believes that such an unfavorable climate was inevitable.
Noah Levine and Pete Smith (Photo by Paul Tei).
At that time, the Democratic Party had turned its back on Bernie Sanders, and the American electorate was stuck with having to choose between two unpalatable candidates, according to the director of "Audience" and "Protest."
“We didn’t think it would be good either way,” says Tei.
So these works, which deal with how individuals deal with each other and the government during a time of authoritarianism, was bound to strike a chord, he adds.
“Havel deals with cold war issues such as how to trying to pursue your career as an artist and speak your mind freely, and how much freedom is left when you are working for a government that is trying to censor you.”
These two plays, which open Thursday at the Miami Theater Center, are parts one and three of a triptych known as the Vaněk plays, which aim to sum up the moral dilemmas of the Czechoslovak life of that era.
The plays are also relevant because they deal with censorship that is being played out by people everyday, the director believes.
“You see this on Facebook on a daily basis. There are people who tell us, ‘Shut up, you’re whiners,’ and, in a way, they are falling in with those who have compromised. The others are the warriors who are continuing to right what is going on in our country.”
When “Audience” was published, Havel’s plays had been banned, and he was among other writers there facing imprisonment if he didn’t have a formal job. He had solved this by finding work as a brewery hand, an experience that providing him with the inspiration for “Audience,” which became his best loved, and arguably finest play.
“Audience” features the first appearance of the character of Vaněk, a former playwright and an awkward and slightly comical figure that is undoubtedly Havel’s self-portrait. He has recently been released from jail for anti-government activities, but he is stuck in a bleak job at of the foreman the brewery.
Through Vaněk, a slightly disguised version of himself, Havel explores the tedious bureaucracy and constant paranoia of life under the Communists.
In “Protest,” Vaněk has escaped the hellish office, and gone to visit the middle class home of one of his friends, whom he hopes to convince to sign a letter renouncing the regime.
The plays were very well received worldwide providing Havel with an official source of income. No longer persecuted as a “social parasite, Havel was able to quit job and pursue the path that culminated in his becoming Czechoslovakia’s first non-communist leader, acclaimed throughout the world for his humanitarianism.
Erik Fabregat, Noah Levine, Pete Smith, and Michael Gioia (Photo by Paul Tei).
Mad Cat is producing “Protest” and “Audience” with help from a Knight Challenge matching grant, which the company won in 2015 to put on two productions that deal with censorship.
The first production is “Audience,” and “Protest,” and the next will be a piece written by Mad Cat member Theo Reyna titled “Firemen Rarely Necessary. “This is a new piece about climate change and tyranny in Florida, and how we’re not supposed to talk about it,” says Tei of the play, which will be produced in June.
“Protest” and “Audience” will be performed 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from Feb. 23 to March 12 at the Miami Theater Center Sandbox at 9816 N.E. 2nd Ave., Miami Shores, Fla., 33138. Students (with ID), Seniors (with ID) and Industry on Thursdays and Sundays, $15.
General Admission is $30
Call 305-715-9550 for info, www.madcattheater.org.
