Václav Havel's PROTEST Comes to the 2025 ESL Rochester Fringe Festival
Performances are on September 10 and 16 at 7:00pm.
By: Stephi Wild Jul. 17, 2025
Theater Apparatus will present Václav Havel's "Protest" at the 2025 Rochester Fringe Festival on September 10 and 16 at 7:00pm at MuCCC, 142 Atlantic Ave. This performance marks the company's fifth appearance at the festival, following productions of Caryl Churchill's “Far Away” and “Love and Information,” as well as the original works “Home of the Brave” and “Inner Loops,” the latter performed at Geva Theatre.
“Protest” was written in 1978 by the Czech playwright who would later become the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia. The drama focuses on Vaněk, a dissident writer just out of prison, and Staněk, a former collaborator who has achieved success through aligning with the regime in power. Vaněk needs Staněk's support on an upcoming protest, and the play explores the complexity of acquiescence and culpability. "Protest" serves as both a historical document of resistance and a contemporary warning about the dangers of political conformity.
As current citizens of the United States face questions about the nature of facts, power, and individual responsibility, so this staging of this Fringe production will be set in the near future in America.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, and political dissident who became the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic. His plays critique totalitarian systems and explore themes of human dignity, obedience, truth, and resistance.
The production features local actors Richard Kendrick of Webster and Turk Thomas of Brockport, under the direction of Jeremy Sarachan, of Brighton, and professor of literature, communication, and the arts at St. John Fisher University.
The Rochester Fringe, New York State's is one of the three most-attended fringe festivals in the United States, attracting more than 100,000 attendees in 2019.
Love Theater in Central New York? Join The Community!
Whether you've got past experience writing about theater or just starting, the BroadwayWorld Community offers a unique opportunity to become a champion for your local arts community, helping raise awareness of local offerings and adding another local voice to the conversation at a time arts coverage is shrinking in the press across the continent. Join us and become a pivotal part of the movement that celebrates and promotes the arts in the digital age.
Learn MoreVideos