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Prague’s Archa Theatre has announced that it will be premiering ex-president Vaclav Havel’s play “Leaving” in May of next year. After a wrangle over which Prague theatre would get the honour of presenting Mr. Havel’s first play in more than 18 years it seemed that finding a stage for it would not be easy. Talks with the National Theatre collapsed over Mr. Havel’s insistence that his actress wife Dagmar should get the main role. And earlier today the Na Vinohradech theatre backed out saying that its limited finances would not allow it to fulfill the technical and budgetary demands of the play’s director. It now appears that Archa Teatre has saved the day.

Former president Vaclav Havel’s new play ‘Odchazeni’ (‘Leaving’) may not be premiered in Prague’s Divadlo na Vinohradech after all. Mr Havel told Mlada Fronta on Wednesday that the theatre was having ‘technical and operational problems’ with the staging of the play, but that negotiations with the theatre were still ongoing. A spokesperson for Divadlo na Vinohradech said that there had been no disagreement between the theatre management and Havel’s appointed director, David Radok, but that difficulties had been encountered in the staging of the play. ‘Odchazeni’ was originally to be premiered at the National Theatre in Prague, but Mr Havel withdrew the play from the theatre, when it refused to cast his wife, Dagmar Havlova, in one of the leading roles. The former president’s highly-anticipated new play is expected to be premiered next May.

Vaclav Havel probably has a higher profile at the moment than at any time since he stepped down as Czech president almost five years ago. His first play in two decades has been published in book form, ahead of its planned stage premiere in spring. And this week has seen the opening of an exhibition entitled Vaclav Havel – Czech Myth, which is a kind of taster for a planned US style presidential library.

An exhibition entitled Vaclav Havel – Czech Myth has opened at Hilgertova Cihelna on Prague’s Kampa. The temporary exhibition catalogues the life and work of the playwright, former dissident and president. Among the items on display are a model of the interior of Mr Havel’s cottage and replicas of his desk and library from the president’s office at Prague Castle. The exhibition has been organised by the Vaclav Havel Library, which is currently looking for a permanent home in the centre of the city.

It was the literary headline of the year, when Vaclav Havel’s first play for nearly two decades was published a few weeks ago and we can be every bit as sure that the first performance of the play next year at Prague’s Na Vinohradech Theatre, will be a huge event. When Havel became president after the spectacular fall of the communist regime in 1989, many predicted that he would never write again. The new play “Odchazeni” (Leaving) proves them wrong. Not only has Havel shown that he can still write, but he has also drawn directly from his political

Vaclav Havel's new play Odchazeni or Leaving, which will be premiered in spring at the Divadlo na Vinohradech Theatre, will also be made into a movie, Mr Havel said on Friday. Czech director Jaroslav Brabec will start filming next summer in cooperation with costume designer Theodor Pistek and stage designer Borek Sipek. The film should feature Vaclav Havel and his wife Dagmar.

The Lucerna Palace, long considered a beacon of Czech national pride has been celebrating its centenary this year without too much of the fanfare usually reserved for such occasions.Situated off Wenceslas Square in the very heart of Prague, and established by civil engineer, designer and builder Vasclav M. Havel in 1907, it was the first multi-purpose arcade of its kind ever to be built in this country.

Vaclav Havel was back in his original role as playwright on Wednesday, when, at a theatre in Prague, the former Czech president presented the book form of "Odchazeni", or "Leaving". The long awaited and widely discussed play will appear in the bookshops in less than a two week's time. However, Mr Havel's first new play in 18 years will not be premiered until the end of May or the beginning of June.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel presented his latest play Odchazeni (The Leaving) in book form at a Prague theatre on Wednesday. Mr Havel said the story of a man leaving a high-ranking position had nothing to do with his own departure as Czech president in 2003, as he had started to write it in the 1980s. Vaclav Havel's play is to premiere at Prague's Na Vinohradech theatre in late May or early June with his wife Dagmar Havlova starring in one of the leading roles.

Reading has friends in some very high places here in the Czech Republic. Last week, former president Vaclav Havel and a group of other famous names besides got together to encourage parents to read to their children for at least twenty minutes a day. To support the cause, Mr. Havel and friends chose their own favourite children's book, and read from it, to an audience of young Czechs, up way past their bed time.