Stage reading of a play by Anna Saavedra written in honor of Olga Havlova (1933 - 1996) – a Czech dissident, activist, and the first wife of Vaclav Havel. Set in the famous weekend lodge of Vaclav Havel. The play is supposed to be about his first wife Olga (immortalized in Havel’s "Letters to Olga"), yet again and again, Havel interferes with her, plays himself into the foreground with his needs and life plans.

The playwright Anna Saavedra looks back onto Olga’s life - with a sense of irony of history and related absurdities, because Olga is never allowed to pick mushrooms alone: first, the state police is at her heels; right after the fall of communism, it is the bodyguard of the newly elected President Havel who follows her. With her straightforward manner, Olga is a cynical commentator on the political upheavals - from the wild dissident parties to state receptions. The biographical serves as the basis for the production’s sitcom-like portrait of a woman who defies life with self-irony.

Olga or Horrors from the Havel Cottage. Playwright: Anna Saavedra. Directed by: Barbora Schnelle, Henning Bochert. Performed by: Jeff Biehl, Ethan Hova, Jason Liebman, Natalia Payne.

The original production on 23 March 2016 at Theater LETÍ at VILA Štvanice in Prague, directed by Martina Schlegelova, won multiple Czech awards in 2016: the Theater Critics Award for best play of the year and best leading actress, and the Theater Journal Award for production of the year.

For more information about the event, visit www.rehearsalfortruth.org.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come first-served basis. RSVP through Eventbrite.

The event is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, with support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York.

The event is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.