Oldřich Daněk: Interview in Delphi

The Conversation at Delphi is a play about the feud of the ancient gods that occurs just after the fall of Troy. The trio of gods who meet at Delphi are represented by Apollo, Dionysos and the goddess of strife, Eris. Their dispute over one human life soon escalates into a sharp clash of positions on the fundamental questions of human existence. Moreover, the play's dialogues gradually reveal the most hidden motives of the actions, whose unsuspected and disastrous consequences seem to mock the original intentions. It is a play about high politics, about interference in human destinies, about the apparent and hidden causes of war and violence, about paradoxes in history and in people's lives. The author of the play is the prominent Czech playwright, novelist, screenwriter and director Oldřich Daněk. Although his artistic career was from the beginning mainly connected with the theatre, from the mid-1960s he was also one of the most important radio authors. For his works he often used the form of a dramatic apocryphon, where he used stories of history and myths to point out the problems of the present day and through the faults of the heroes of old to bring out the shortcomings of ourselves. This area of Oldřich Daňek's work includes The Interview at Delphi. The title itself suggests that the world of antiquity was the playwright's building material. We apologize for the minor technical shortcomings of the archival record.