In new play, Vaclav Havel looks back on power

Vaclav Havel's new absurdist tragicomedy, "Leaving" - his first play since 1988 - depicts a womanizing former political leader who grudgingly confronts the political wilderness. Much has been made of the parallels between the plot and Havel's life. The main character, Vilem Rieger, the chancellor of an unnamed country, is ousted from power and his extravagant government villa by a pompous former deputy, Vlastik Klein. He just happens to share the initials of Vaclav Klaus, Havel's arch-rival, who succeeded Havel as president of the Czech Republic. Havel, who stepped down as president five years ago, acknowledges that the play - which will have its foreign premiere in London in September before going to the United States - is a semiautobiographical King Lear-like meditation on the seductiveness of power. But he insists he is... [read full story]