The Power of the Powerless

About

He need not accept a lie. All it takes is to accept living a lie and within a lie.
Thus alone he sanctions the system, gives the system its contents and form, becomes one.

What can one do where apparently nothing can be done? In his iconic essay The Power of the Powerless, Václav Havel asks whether the only possibility for the powerless is accepting the external circumstances and succumbing to inner resignation; he contemplated the question in the 1970s, while subjected to harsh communist oppression.

The new original production based on his text gives the floor to thirteen Generation Z performers to express their own considerations on the same theme, in the context of their times, on the Prague Crossroads stage. On the threshold of adulthood, without any actual social power and influence, how shall one face the current turbulent and precarious situation? Finding one’s place in the society, starting to write one’s own story, and changing the world at least a little bit to suit one’s ideas seem virtually impossible.

Moreover, do the “children” even have a right to publicly shout out their opinions, or should they rather return to school and let the adults run the world?

Co-production with the SNT Drama and NT Young

This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme by European Union.

Czech premiere performances: 18 and 19 September 2026 at Prague Crossroads. Slovak premiere performances: 8 and 9 October 2026 in the Studio at the SNT New Building

Creatives

Stage director Adéla Laštovková Stodolová

Dramaturgy Róbert Štefančík, Darina Abrahámová

Sets Marek Cpin

Costume design Alexandra Gnidiaková

Projection and animation Tereza Vejvodová

Music Petr Zeman

Lecturer management Zuzana Kráľová