Petr Lébl

Petr Lébl (16 May 1965, Prague – 12 December 1999, Prague) was a Czech theatre director, scenographer, actor, designer and artistic director of the Theatre on the Balustrade. Lébl is considered one of the most significant personalities of the 20th century Czech theatre.

Lébl devoted himself to theatre from an early age. At the age of 15 he became a member of the amateur theatre group DOPRAPO (the group was later renamed to Jak se vám jelo and JELO), with which he performed in his first play, Kolotoč splněných přání. He studied at high-school specializing in graphic arts, and later used his experience in this area on theatre stages.

In 1982, as a high-school student, Lébl attempted to create scenic variations on the theme of the novel Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. The same year, he contacted Vonnegut by letter and received a reply. In 1985 Lébl adapted Slapstick as a theatre play. He directed the play and also performed in the lead role. Coincidentally, Vonnegut visited Prague at that time and attended the performance of Slapstick. According to the Czech translator of Slapstick, Jaroslav Kořán, Vonnegut was deeply impressed by the adaptation and wrote a dedication "to my sister Petr" to the Czech translation of the book. When Lébl asked him why he wrote "to my sister", Vonnegut answered that he already has one brother.

Lébl's amateur theatre was reasonably popular in the second half of the 1980s. He met the US ambassador Luers and attended parties organized by the US embassy, where he met John Updike, Edward Albee and William Styron. In his free time, he worked as a designer of shop windows for the company Textil-oděvy Prague.

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