HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION

Jiří Havelka

Genre: comedy
Cast: 9 men, 6 women

A merciless battle among over-excited egos to gain a position at the sunny side of the social stage and dominate the others. Its dramatic form is built on the ground of a typical meeting of a homeowners’ association.

A group of homeowners gather at a conference room to take part at their regular meeting. The programme is decided in advance but since the very first moment there are seemingly trivial but fierce disagreements arising among the co-owners. In the beginning we get to know the characters (meeting participants) and in particular new homeowners, a newly married young couple Mrs and Mr Bernášek and the Čermák brothers who have inherited their father’s flat. Mrs Bernášek is due soon and she almost cannot endure the meeting. A lonely old bachelor Mr Švec (52) takes part at the meeting on behalf of his mother who got sick and must have been hospitalized. The chairwoman of the meeting is Mrs Zahrádková (34), an ambitious young woman who is vigorously trying to manage both her career and family care (she and Mr Zahrádka have three children). There are two important points on the programme of the meeting: building an elevator that is required by the owners of the flats in the higher floors and selling the attic space that could allow the association to earn the finances that are needed especially for repairing the gas distribution net that is in serious disrepair. Each of these proposals gives rise to sharp disagreements. Everything is always very firmly and often for no reason vetoed by Mr Kubát (64), a former official of the Peoples’ Housing Association and a current owner of three flats. Other owners intrigue against one another and pursue their own goals. All reasonable proposals are shattered by someone and we can hear many different absurd arguments that positively set the participants against each other. Impossibility of any sensible agreement leads in the end to a crisis when helpless and irritated Mrs Zahrádková wants to resign from her post. But getting rid of someone’s post is not as easy as it may seem.

The play is available in the Czech original and French and Slovak translation.