Zdeněk Adamec

What is the truth of Zdeněk Adamec, who boarded the bus to Prague in the small Czech town of Humpolec on the evening of 5th March 2003 and, upon arriving at Wenceslas Square the next morning, doused himself with petrol and set himself alight?

And thereby called to mind Jan Palach, the student who set himself on fire at that very spot in January 1969 in protest against the end of the Prague Spring, and also inspired 17 young Czechs to follow suit? Peter Handke’s play explores the life and the suicidal revolt of this young loner with questions and stories that mainly establish one thing: the impossibility of reasoning in the face of a life and its violent end.