When he wrote his play, Temptation, in Czechoslovakia, before the Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel was inspired by the legend of Doctor Faustus.
Dr Henry Foustka, the central charcacter, is employed by a scientific institute, whose purpose is to detect and counter, in society, and especially among the young, any interest in the supernatural. Although he vehemently denies it to his gossiping colleagues, Foustka is secretly engaged in a private study of hermetic literaure. When Havel’s Mephistopheles figure, Fistula, enters his life he is given an opportunity to become involved in black magic at a practical level. Fistula, a tramp with smelly feet who is unexpectedly articulate, offers himself as a subject for study. In return he expects Foustka to protect him by testifying that he has put himself at the disposal of science.
Vilma is Henry’s girlfriend with whom he has been playing jealousy-arousing games. Fistula hints that she has really been unfaithful, but promises that he will capture the heart of Maggie, a pretty and innocent Institute secretary, at the social that evening. As others dance, he finds in himself an unexpected eloquence, with which he convinces Maggie of the existence of the human spirit, winning her heart as well as her mind before the end of the evening. The consequences for the unhappy Maggie soon become apparent.
This is a play with an involved plot. The Director of the Institute makes advances to Foustka, but what mischief is he scheming? Foustka is repelled by Fistula, yet he makes a pact with him to liberate himself from moral responsibility. His efforts to save his skin involve him in a battle of wits with both Fistula and the Director with whom he has made a different pact. Dr Koterly is a scientist who ingratiates himself with the Director and the latter has a male secretary who repeatedly appears on stage to whisper something in the latter’s ear before exiting.
Temptation is a very entertaining play, but one where the dark side of human nature is uppermost. Suspicion, deceit, jealousy, betrayal and treachery poison the people who appear to work and socialise amiably together, while the pure of heart languish in mental institutions. This is a play about the predicament of a writer in a society where atheism is the official doctrine; but it is more than that, transcending time and place.
