Theme number one

Seven boys described the church wall with anti-Catholic slogans. This small offence was caught up in the gears of big history and thus had a fatal impact on those involved. Listen to the game, starring Svatopluk Beneš, Petr Svoboda, Miloš Hlavica, Viktor Preiss, Josef Velda, Ladislav Mrkvička and Zdeněk Ornest. The stereophonic radio play-litany (as its subtitle reads) tells the story of seven students who in March 1930 painted the walls of the dean's church and cemetery in a Czech town with red slogans defaming the Catholic Church. It was to be a response to the Church's protests against the restrictions on religious freedom in the USSR. The fate of all the participants in this action, despite the marginal immediate punishments, had a fatal impact. This is because of the two totalitarianisms that took power in our country. The play was written in 1968, and in 1969 it won the main prize in a competition for an original radio play together with a play by Ivan Klíma. The chairman of the jury was Ota Ornest. The play was filmed but deleted in 1969. It was premiered in the Czech Republic in 1991 as Theme Number One.