"Playwrights take career breaks for all sorts of reasons, but none quite so strikingly as Václav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic. This week his first play for nearly 20 years receives its British premiere, at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. He was, of course, getting on with other things in the meantime, such as seeing the Soviets out of his country, dissolving the Warsaw Pact, reshaping Europe. It was hardly a retreat from drama."

"He doesn't much like it when his story is told as if it were a piece of theatre in its own right, for fear that it trivialises that time of mighty shifts in the world order. Yet when you look at this extraordinary life it is hard to ignore completely the parallels between his progress and the sometimes absurdist tone of his work."

Times Online - Vaclav Havel: Life After Revolution

"It's one of those events that sells out before anybody's even heard about it and Czech celebrities are out in force. I spot Monkey Business frontman Roman Holý (forced to stand), contemporary artist Jiří David, and Mrs. H herself, Dagmar Havlová. The Plastic People of the Universe kick things off, 23 minutes late, then moderator Daniel Hrbek introduces his two main guests, who receive a standing ovation. Reed has changed into leather trousers for the occasion, while Havel walks with a noticeable limp. Havel recalls his first exposure to the Velvet Underground, during a trip to New York in the late 60s, when a Czech-American friend told him he 'must buy this record' - the Velvets' third album, with the black-and-white cover. The two then go on to recount their nervousness at their first meeting, at Prague Castle in 1990. 'It's always dangerous to meet someone you admire,' says Reed. 'I had no idea what to expect.'"

Václav Havel & Lou Reed by Sam Beckwith

In 1977 he helped orchestrate and produce Charter 77, a document supported by hundreds of Czech intellectuals, that demanding that Czech citizens be afforded basic human rights such as had seemed to be promised in the Helsinki Agreements. Havel functioned as one of three prominent spokesmen for the group. In 1978 Havel participated in the foundation of a Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted. Later that year he was arrested and tried, convicted and sentenced to 4 years with hard labour for "subversion." During his prison term, authorities distorted one of Havel's letters to make it appear he had betrayed the Charter 77 movement.

He was released in 1983 and, though under constant surveillance, continued to criticize the government through the underground press. He was re-arrested in January 1989 and spent nine months in prison for his various involvements with protests. As that year progressed, Civil Forum - an opposition movement Havel helped form that was dedicated to democratic reforms - gained momentum and culminated in the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989. The way for this having been somewhat opened by the new policy emanating from Moscow whereby Mikhail Gorbachev and others now accepted that the Soviet satellites states in eastern Europe had the right to pursue their own courses. Gorbachev was effectively trying to save Communism by liberalizing it but the resulting wave of democratization that swept Eastern Europe instead effectively spurred an end to Communism.

Havel, along with other opposition supporters, demanded the resignation of President Gustav Husak, who ultimately succumbed. In December, 1989, Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.
He resigned from office briefly in 1992 when the Slovak parliament passed its own constitution. Shortly thereafter, and to Havel's personal regret, Czechoslovakia split into two new states - the Republic of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Havel was elected president of the Czech Republic in 1993.

A notably heavy smoker, surgeons removed half of his right lung and a small malignant tumor in December 1996. He developed severe pneumonia and a high fever after the surgery and said later that he nearly died. Havel gave up smoking but continues to suffer from health problems. While the prime minister manages many of the affairs of state, Havel holds large sway over public opinion and is one of the most-recognized leaders in Europe. He also serves as an inspiration to fighters for democracy, symbolizing the power of one person to change the course of history through non-violent means.

"... in today's multicultural world, the truly reliable path to coexistence, to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation, must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion...It must be rooted in self-transcendence. Transcendence as a hand that reaches out to those close to us, to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe; transcendence as a deeply and joyously experienced need to be in harmony even with what we ourselves are not..."

Vaclav Havel
Philadelphia 1994

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