Description
Paul and Ian’s One-Man Show
Presents
Two by Petru
The Bear
Drowning in the Absence of Water
By Dalibor Petru
Performed by
Ian Bowater
Paul Deblinger
Special Guest Performer Lori Mahl
Dalibor Petru was a relatively unknown Czech dissident writer from the 60s and early 70s. Like many Czech artists he was forced underground after the Soviet invasion in 1968. Petru wrote 19 plays during the period but they were lost until discovered by his daughter in the attic of a family cottage in the small village of Bzi in 2006. Petru worked for the Minister of Culture in the 60s but lost his job and was relocated to Chumatov 100 kilometers from Prague where he worked as a zookeeper. None of his plays have been produced in English until The Play, Samizdat Shabbas, and Two Companion Pieces on the Theme of Invasion
were produced by Paul and Ian’s One-Man Show. It has been mentioned that Vaclav Havel, playwright and first President of the Czech Republic included Petru in his underground staged readings in the 60s and 70s. These Companion Pieces.
The Bear and Drowning in the Absence of Water were recently translated by eminent Czech translator Hana Zahradnikova. They are the first two-act plays with more than two characters to be presented in English.
Paul and Ian’s One-Man Show is proud to present Lori Mahl in these performances.
The actors will answer questions about Dalibor Petru following the performance.