Opera zebracka (The Beggar's Opera)

Beller known in Brecht's version retitled as 'The Threepenny Opera, Vaclav Havel updated this John Gay classic to communist Czechoslovakia in the 70s. His sharp wit and multilayered dialog turned against the generally prevailing distorted morale, but its comical tone made it attractive to the genera! audience. Bul Havel's rich philosophizing equating the Communist party with the mafia underworld drove him into hiding, so that his name could not even appear on the theater
repertoire. Today Jiri Menzel found it somewhat easier to produce. After a successful run in Prague, he decided to make it into a film.