Year of publication: 2015

An unexpected discovery in the archives of the Na zábradlí Theater aspires to an extraordinary event in Czech cultural life. It is an authentic recording of the performance of Milan Kundera's play Ptákovin, dated 14 January 1970, just before the play was banned by censorship. The plot of the story is simple: the school principal draws a diamond on the blackboard that represents the female gender, has the incident investigated, and sarcastically amuses himself with the reactions of his colleagues. The commission of inquiry rewards the falsely accused student, who diligently confesses to an act he did not commit, with a felony. However, the director, intoxicated with his power, imprudently admits to the chairman's wife everything he really thinks about her man and thus falls into a trap, becoming a kind of sex slave against his will. At the end of the play, a crucial message is heard from the mouth of the victorious unfaithful lecher: “Power is sweetest when it is completely disproportionate. When a fool rules over the wise, the weak over the strong, the hideous over the beautiful..." The play rose to the top of the audience's interest immediately after the premiere, also thanks to the great acting. In the roles of chairman and director, Miloš Kopecký and Josef Chvalina excelled in ironic exaggeration, but other performers also gave extraordinary performances, for example Světla Svozilová, Eva Svobodová, Helena Lehká, Inka Čekanová, Hana Smrčková, Jan Přeučil and Oldřich Vlach. The supraphonic sound recording is published simultaneously with the book edition of the game by the Atlantis publishing house. A real treasure from the archive, a mockery of deviant systems of power, it belongs to the basic cultural heritage of our country.