Václav Havel's Life Theater | 1959–1969
1968
During the events of the so-called Prague Spring, VH is among those pushing for more than mere reform of communism. However, despite his sober distance from the stirred up, revolutionary mood in society, he devotes a lot of energy to the struggle for the survival of the suspended critical magazine Tvář, becomes involved in the reforms of the Union of Writers, sets up the Circle of Independent Writers and becomes chairman of the Coordination Centre of Independent Organisations, which brings together nascent opposition forces, in particular KAN, the union of former political prisoners K231 and the Social Democrats. In addition, he contributes to Literární listy an article titled On the Theme of Opposition, in which he calls for the de facto abolition of the Communist Party's monopoly on power.
1968
Premiere of The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, a play based on the motif of artificial intelligence that satirizes the “robotization“ of human existence.
1968
Spring sojourn in the USA, where he attends the premiere of The Memorandum in New York, contacts Czech émigré intellectuals, follows his father's pro-American sympathies and is inspired by 1960s US culture (music, the human rights movement, hippies). Soon after his return he takes a trip around Western Europe.
1968
In the summer, before the August invasion, VH quits his post as dramaturge at the Theater on the Balustrade of his own accord. He becomes a freelance writer.
srpen 1968
VH is in Liberec, northern Bohemia when the dramatic events of the August 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops begin. He becomes involved in the civil resistance and writes a series of radio announcements on the need to resist the occupation and on the forms such resistance might take. The texts are read on air by his actor friend Jan Tříska.
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