The play, based on a dialogue that Havel wrote in 1987, is a shaggy-dog tale about his attempt to put together a zabíjačka (a traditional Czech pig roast) for his dissident friends, framed as an interview with a clueless American journalist. As he tells the comic tale, he provides veiled commentary on everyday life under Communism, disguising it so that it can slip past the ever-present censors. Acclaimed Czech director Vladimír Morávek rediscovered the piece and, together with Havel, combined it with sections from Smetana's operetta, The Bartered Bride.