19:00, Tue 16th – Sat 20th November 2010 at Corpus Playroom
Michaelmas Week 6

In an ordinary flat, in an ordinary totalitarian regime, Hugo Pludek has finished school and is ready to set foot into the world. Just like any boy he has parents who are keen for him to 'get ahead', and with that in mind he is sent to The Liquidation Office Garden Party. It is a wonderfully exciting party. As long as you have submitted the necessary forms to the Secretariat of Humour and the Ideological Regulation Commission you can even exchange humorous stories with other guests. The Liquidation Office is so impressed with Hugo that they entrust him with the liquidation of the Liquidation Office as long as he wears his regulation novelty party nose. This absurdist comedy from the Czech Republic's most famous dissident/essayist/playwright/president will have you laughing, crying, pondering and all other things besides. After all 'one should never fire a blunderbuss into the nettles'.

This “monumental headfuck of an absurdist comedy” is a reflection on the nature of success, and the bullshittery it requires – something close to all our hearts here in Cambridge. Havel hilariously demonstrates how our language can control our thought and behaviour and how we ultimately are ruled by the bullshit we spout.