On the margin of the new world stage : the reception of Václav Havel's drama in North America

This publication was inspired by several considerations: the initial one was the 80^th anniversary of the birth of Václav Havel in 2016 and the appendant public debate about his legacy both in his home country and on the international scale; this debate, understandably, focused on the political, ideological and intellectual bequest of Havel’s life and work, and analyzed its implications from a variety of perspectives and standpoints. Even though a number of productions of Havel’s plays were realized, the debate did not quite convert on the opportunity for a complex, thorough re-interpretation and re-evaluation of his achievement as, arguably, the most influential Czech playwright of the 20^th century and a lifelong theater practitioner and theoretician in one.