Gail Papp on Václav Havel among New York’s hippies – and under house arrest in communist Czechoslovakia

Taking advantage of relative liberalisation at home, the young Václav
Havel visited New York in the spring of 1968 for the US premiere of his
second major play, The Memorandum. It was staged by the Public Theater,
which had just had a huge hit with Hair and was headed by director Joseph
Papp. He and his wife Gail Papp got to know Havel at that time – and
later visited the then dissident at his country home in communist
Czechoslovakia.