The Makropulos Affair

This article is about Čapek's play. For the opera, see The Makropulos Affair (opera).

The Makropulos Affair (or The Makropulos Case, Czech: Věc Makropulos) is a play written by Karel Čapek and first performed on 21 November 1922 in the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague.[1] Between 1923 and 1925, the play was turned into an opera of the same name by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, who wrote his own libretto.

The play, described as a "comedy", was produced at the Arts Theatre in London, under the name The Macropulos Secret, on 8 July 1930. The producer was A. R. Whatmore and the cast included André van Gyseghem as Vitek, Lesley Wareing as Krista and Donald Wolfit as Jaroslav Prus.[2]

The Makropulos Affair forms the centre of a classic article by Bernard Williams, in which he argues that a person never has reason to live an immortal life.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Details of Čapek's theatrical activities in 1922-3 (in Czech
  2. ↑ John Parker (1947). Who's Who in the Theatre (tenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.
  3. ↑ Bernard Williams, "The Makropulos case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality", Problems of the Self, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.