This double bill presents translations of Vaclav Havel’s Mountain Hotel and Audience.

Written in the 1970s, Mountain Hotel centres on a motley group of guests striving to live with each other. Among them, a blocked writer, a sentimental Russian count, the card-playing Dlask, footballer Tetz and Vilem Pechar sunbathing on the grass. Then there is Rachel, whose life appears to revolve around knitting and sex, Vilem’s wife who is ministering to his infidelities and Liza who is coping with the count. Two of the guests look on in silence. The hotel staff has problems too, and five of the men are called Joseph.

Audience follows Vanek, who is working in a brewery and finds himself summoned to meet his boss. Might there be a better job on offer, where he will not have to handle heavy barrels of beer? But might there be a catch? Who exactly is going to be doing who a favour? And just how much beer is Vanek expected to consume before he finds out?