Leaving

by Václav Havel translated by Paul Wilson directed by Jiri Zizka starring Oscar® nominee David Strathairn

May 19 – June 20, 2010

Václav Havel, renowned playwright (Temptation, Largo Desolato) and former President of the Czech Republic, returns to the theater with his first play in 20 years, and Wilma audiences will be the first to see it in the U.S. Leaving is an inventive story of a recently retired Chancellor who struggles over questions of truth and power along with 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 that received critical acclaim in Prague and in London where The Sunday Times hailed it as, “Thrillingly funny…a hilarious send-up of politics and of theatre!”

PRESS / NEWS

Worldview: Havel on democracy: We haven’t left the path
Václav Havel, Returning to Drama With Leaving
NPR
Cumulative Effect: Václav Havel’s Leaving sums up the life of a statesman — and a playwright, too.
David Strathairn Returns to The Wilma Theater