The Pig, or Vaclav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig
Opening Night: March 6, 2014
Closing: March 29, 2014
Theater: 3LD Art & Technology Center
Václav Havel needs a pig he can slaughter and cook for a party with his dissident friends. An American journalist arrives for an interview. The villagers have a pig to sell, but where is it? And why is everyone singing The Bartered Bride? Food, drink, song, video, politics and celebration collide in this adaptation by experimental Czech director Vladimír Morávek of Havel’s text and Smetana’s music. Untitled Theater Company No. 61, the company that brought you The Havel Festival, presents the English-language premiere of this theatrical-musical-technological-gastronomic extravaganza, translated by Edward Einhorn and directed by Henry Akona. Join us at a traditional Czechoslovakian zabíjačka feast. Reserve a table and enjoy a meal or just sit back and enjoy the party.
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March 12, 2014
When I left the 3LD Art & Technology Center the other night, I had half of a pulled-pork sandwich in my pocket, and Vaclav Havel was dancing around the room, singing a rambunctious version of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man” to live accompaniment. Such are the happy vagaries of a New York theater critic’s life. O.K., it wasn’t actually Havel, the Czech playwright who went from dissident to president and died in 2011 at 75. It was the fine actor Robert Honeywell, playing him in the Havel play The Pig, or Vaclav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig — except it wasn’t exactly Havel’s play, but Edward Einhorn’s English adaptation of the Czech director Vladimir Moravek’s adaptation of a dialogue that Havel wrote in 1987, two years before Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution ended four decades of Communist rule.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 12, 2014
When is a traditional Czech pig roast just a pig roast? And when is it something more, perhaps an intimation of popular revolution? The Pig, or Vaclav Havel’s Hunt for the Pig folk-dances atop this fine line with a wink and nod throughout its 80 perky minutes. Meanwhile, we spectators take part in the feast — and generate a little Velvet Revolution–style people power — by enjoying Slovak pork sandwiches and Czech beers.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 11, 2014
The program for The Pig, or Václav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig, says that it is neither a play nor an operetta, even though it has elements of both; instead, it is best understood as a collage. And, may I say, it is an especially tasty one. This is because the price of your ticket includes langos, the Czech version of a wrap, loaded with pulled pork or vegetables, along with drinks ranging from water to Czech beer, and a chocolate treat. A lower ticket price is offered, for seating only, but if I were you, I’d spring for the food. The pulled pork is thoroughly delicious, and if you need additional nourishment, pretzels and more drinks are available on an à la carte basis. It’s the downtown version of dinner theatre, a thoroughly original and unexpected treat.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 11, 2014
The Pig isn’t quite a play. It’s an odd extravaganza of exuberance, experimentalism, music, and food. Sandwiches, chocolate, pretzels, and beer (the four basic food groups) are served to audience members for dinner. Vaclav Havel’s last theatrical… um… work is a collage of mediums. An American TV reporter is interviewing Vaclav Havel in 1987 about a quirky incident of trying to buy a pig for a feast celebration.
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March 13, 2014
In 2010, the Czech director Vladimír Morávek combined an article written by Václav Havel for an underground magazine—a shaggy-dog tale about the time the Czech writer couldn’t find a pig for a pig roast he was hosting—with a well-known Czech operetta, The Bartered Bride, and produced it with Havel’s blessing at a theatre festival in Brno. Now, three years after Havel’s death, Edward Einhorn, the artistic director of the Untitled Theatre Company #61, has translated and adapted Morávek’s piece, adding his own dialogue, a few characters, and some video clips to make it more comprehensible to Americans.
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