Leaving is a 2007 tragicomedic

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...

 play by Václav Havel

Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

. Although Havel has had an extensive career as a playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, Leaving is his first play in over twenty years. The play premiered at Archa Theatre in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 on May 22, 2008. The play is composed of five acts and requires eleven men, six women, and one voice.

Orange Tree

• Directed by Sam Walters
  Sam Walters
  Sam Walters MBE is a British theatre director and Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London, specialising in theatre-in-the-round productions...
  
  . Translated by Paul Wilson
  Paul Wilson
  Paul Wilson may refer to:*F. Paul Wilson , American science fiction and horror author*R. Paul Wilson, sleight of hand expert*Paul Wilson , pitcher in Major League Baseball...
  
  .
• Vilém Rieger, ex-chancellour .... Geoffrey Beevers
  Geoffrey Beevers
  Geoffrey Beevers is a British actor who has appeared in many different television roles.Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor ; and as an adaptor/director of George Eliot's novel Adam Bede , for which he won a Time Out Award, and Balzac's...
  
  
• Grandmother, Rieger's mother ....
• Vlasta, Rieger's older daughter ....
• Albín, Vlasta'husband ....
• Zuzana, Rieger's younger daughter ....
• Irena, Rieger's long-time girlfriend ....
• Monika, Irena's friend ....
• Hanuš, Rieger's ex-secretary ....
• Viktor, Hanuš's ex-secretary ....
• Osvald, Rieger's handmaid ....
• Knobloch, gardener ....
• Vlasta Klein, ndeputy and vice-chairman ....
• Bea Weissenmütelhof, student of politics and mutliculture social psychology ....
• Jack, journalist ....
• Bob, photographer ....
• Officers ....
• Charwoman ....
• Removers ....
• Voice of reproductor ....

Národní divadlo

• Directed by Petr Mikulík. The play had premiere at ??? 2009 in National Theatre in Bratislava.
• Vilém Rieger, ex-chancellour .... Marián Labuda
  Marián Labuda
  Marián Labuda is a Slovak actor.In 1964 he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava . He became member of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. In 1967 he moved to the theatre Divadlo na Korze in the same city. Following its closure in 1971 he joined Nová scéna in Bratislava...
  
  
• Grandmother, Rieger's mother ....
• Vlasta, Rieger's older daughter ....
• Albín, Vlasta'husband ....
• Zuzana, Rieger's younger daughter ....
• Irena, Rieger's long-time girlfriend ....
• Monika, Irena's friend ....
• Hanuš, Rieger's ex-secretary ....
• Viktor, Hanuš's ex-secretary ....
• Osvald, Rieger's handmaid ....
• Knobloch, gardener ....
• Vlasta Klein, ndeputy and vice-chairman .... Jozef Vajda
• Bea Weissenmütelhof, student of politics and mutliculture social psychology ....
• Jack, journalist ....
• Bob, photographer ....
• Officers ....
• Charwoman ....
• Removers ....
• Voice of reproductor ....

Leaving had its U.S. premiere at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, PA in May, 2010.