Audience (Audience, 1975) and Mountain Hotel (Horský Hotel 1976) and are two plays by Václav Havel (b 1936). Audience is a simple two-hander, in which a dissident writer is summoned to meet the foreman in the brewery where he works. Mountain Hotel is a big-cast affair, in which various characters sit around in the garden of a hotel.

Audience is a drama of subtext. A foreman (Robert Austin, with a no-nonsense Yorkshire accent) tries to explain what exactly he wants Vanek (David Antrobus) - a dissident writer who has a job in the brewery - to do. But somehow he can't get to say the words - while getting drunk on the company's produce and visiting the lavatory regularly. Bemused Vanek sits opposite, trying not to drink beer and trying to work out what exactly the foreman is trying to say. It could have life-threatening significance.

It's funny, and skilfully played. As an insight into the world of a communist state, it might have been quite revealing in 1975. But it's the kind of thing that might have evoked a knowing nod to a neighbour rather than inspiring an uprising. It's a wry comment on communism and all its faults, not an assault on the jugular.

The self-referential bits are also a bit grating. (The writer in the play has a friend, Kohout. Václav Havel also had a friend called Kohout, another dissident writer.) While it is all very knowing, it also feels a bit egocentric and slightly schoolboyish, as though the writer is inviting - under layers of disguise - the sharing of something, like a dirty joke.

Mountain Hotel takes an evident love of repetition - the foreman in Audience comes back regularly to the same questions - to another level. A miscellaneous group of people sit around the garden of a hotel, exchanging small talk. This scene repeats itself with small variations. Then lines which were the property of one character somehow slip into another's mouth. By the end, the characters exchange their roles as the repetitions get faster and faster and everything gets mixed up. The 'Director' of the hotel arrives with his gnomic assistant to deliver a small lecture. This itself consists of pleasantries and odd little facts: 'The light in the bathroom is now working', he exclaims - as though this has a shattering significance.

It has the atmosphere of an old-fashioned drawing-room comedy, but clearly things have gone awry. Plot, character, events are all no longer linear or logical. This may well be what life feels like under a totalitarian regime. But sadly, as a play, Mountain Hotel feels self-indulgent, dull and flat - despite the efforts of the cast to put some interest into their characters and the events which take place.

Cast Credits - Audience: (alpha order): David Antrobus - Vanek. Robert Austin - Foreman.

Cast Credits - Mountain Hotel: (alpha order): Philip Anthony - Dlask. David Antrobus - Kotrba. Robert Austin - Kunc. Faye Castelow - Milena. Rebecca Ruth Elliott - Liza. Stuart Fox - Kubik. James Greene - Orlov. Jonathan Guy Lewis - Drasar. Christopher Naylor - Kraus. Paul O’Mahoney - Pechar. Rebecca Pownall - Pecharova. Mike Sengelow - Tetz. Paula Stockbridge - Rachel.

Company Credits: Writer - Václav Havel. Director - Audience - Geoffrey Beevers. Director - Mountain Hotel - Sam Walters. Designer - Sam Dowson. Lighting - John Harris. Stage Manager – Stuart Burgess. Deputy Stage Manager – Sophie Acreman. Assistant Stage Manager – Becky Fisher. Production Technicians – Leanne Simmonds, Dan Staniforth. Sound / Show Assistant Stage Manager – Leanne Simmonds. Wardrobe assistant – Stevie Boreham. The Havel Company: (alpha order): Philip Anthony, David Antrobus, Robert Austin, Carolyn Backhouse, Geoffrey Beevers, Fay Castelow, Esther Ruth Elliot, Stuart Fox, James Greene, Jonathan Guy Lewis, Christopher Naylor, Paul O'Mahony, Rebecca Pownall, Mike Sengelow, Auriol Smith, Paula Stockbridge; The Havel Company is joined for the productions by Jonathan Guy Lewis. Press - Meg Dobson. Producer - uncredited. Company - The Havel Company & Orange Tree Theatre. Website - www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk.

END

(c) Michael Spring 2008

reviewed Friday, 31 October 2008 / Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com