Professional Foul

"Ethics is a very complicated business." The spring production of Czech Theater presents Tom Stoppard's play Professional Foul. The story unfolds in Czechoslovakia in 1977 and follows academics, dissidents, sports stars, and StB agents. A philosophy professor arrives for a weekend conference in Prague intending to be "a little naughty" — but when the political regime tests his ideas about morality, ethics, and decent behavior, he must reconsider everything he took for granted. The play was created for the BBC as part of Amnesty International's campaign for the year of "Prisoners of Conscience."

Tom Stoppard was born as Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, where his father worked for the Baťa shoe company. In 1939 he fled with his family from the Nazis; after the war he lived in England, where he became famous as a dramatist (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) and won several Tony Awards. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Oscar for Brazil (1985) and won one for Shakespeare in Love (1998). During a visit to his native country in 1977, he befriended Václav Havel; the fates of Czechoslovak dissidents deeply moved him and inspired a series of works set in Czechoslovakia, including Professional Foul, which he dedicated to Havel. The performance takes place less than 100 km from Stoppard's birthplace.