Current Affairs A little-known Havel play to be broadcast on Radio Prague

Paul Wilson It's a one-act radio play - at just under half-an-hour ideally suited to the length of our broadcasts - and tells the story of a bizarre and very sinister encounter. Here's how Paul Wilson, who translated the play and has known Havel for many years, sums up the plot:

"There are two characters. One is a playwright, Vavak, who is obviously someone like Havel, who has had a great deal of success in his own sphere. And he's visited by someone, who first appears as a mysterious stranger and makes all kinds of demands on him. It's very clear, I think, to the Czech listener, that this person is someone who is working for the cultural department of the secret police, and he's come to deliver some sinister message to the playwright. The message that he delivers to him comes in the course of the play."

The sinister visitor also brings a rather strange and surreal gift for the playwright. Here is a short extract from the play, where Vavak has just opened the suitcase that contains this gift and has been trying to guess what it might be:

VAVAK: (Thinks) An automatic duster?

MACHON: You're getting warm!

VAVAK: I give up.

MACHON: An atomic hair polisher.

VAVAK: I beg your pardon?

MACHON: An atomic hair polisher.

VAVAK: An atomic hair polisher?

MACHON: Yes. An atomic hair polisher.

VAVAK: I've never heard of such a thing.

MACHON: Of course you haven't. It's an experimental prototype. My brother made it. He's a mechanic.

VAVAK: Oh, how kind of you! It's such a - beautiful thing. And a prototype! It's a pity --

MACHON: What's a pity?

VAVAK: It's a pity that - as a rule - I never polish my hair.

MACHON: You never polish your hair! You, of all people! Everyone knows who you are. People stop and stare at you when you walk down the street. It's important to make a good impression after all. It makes sense. You'll see - you're going to look incredibly elegant.

Gerry Turner and Gordon Truefitt What follows is a wonderful scene where Machon demonstrates the atomic hair polisher - which gave us a lot of fun with the sound effects. Then, as the play develops Machon gradually becomes nastier, and the rather weak Vavak is completely unable to cope with his combination of flattery and threat. Here's another short extract, from very near the end of the play:

VAVAK: I know you mean well. I don't doubt that. Couldn't I just plug my ears with cotton wool?

MACHON: (Explodes) Are you out of your mind? Just what exactly do you think this is all about? After a couple of hours the cotton is going to start itching and you'll take it out and you'll happen to overhear something and you'll spit it out on paper, and do you think that I'm going to let myself be tossed out on the street because of that? I've done a lot for artists, but I'm not going to play the fool for anybody.

VAVAK: So what do you suggest?

MACHON: We take steps. Then your troubles are over for the rest of your life.

VAVAK: Steps? What kind of steps?

MACHON: You'll see.

If you'd like to find out what these "steps" are, please tune in to the play next Tuesday.

Gerry Turner and Gordon Truefitt For the two roles we chose two British actors, who have worked together before, most recently in Milan Kundera's "Jacques and his Master". Gordon Truefitt plays the nasty Machon with great gusto, and interestingly, the actor and translator Gerry Turner, who plays Vavak, has himself in the past translated some of Havel's work.

On Sunday we will be broadcasting a special programme instead of our usual "Encore", where I'll be discussing the play, with Paul Wilson, Gerry Turner and Barbara Day, who has been interested in Havel's work since she first lived in Prague in the 1960s. You can hear the play itself right after our usual news bulletin in our Tuesday evening (and Wednesday morning) programme next week (28th September 2004).