A serious comedy, and a (mostly) true story.
“...if a playwright succeeds in making us laugh or cry, or both, and still feel
intelligent, he’s an artist. But if a playwright succeeds to orchestrate the overthrow
of a communist dictatorship without one single bullet being fired, it is...a miracle.”
Academy award winner Miloš Forman
In 1964, to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th Birthday, the Royal Shakespeare Company is invited to perform King Lear behind the Iron Curtain. When in Prague, a young member of the company, Barry, goes to see a local play and at the bar afterwards, he befriends the Czech playwrite... none other than Vaclav Havel – who would go on to help overthrow the repressive regime after many years in prison and become his country’s first freely elected president. – the next three days will leave them breathless and lay the foundation for the Velvet Revolution.
