The critics say The Elegance of the Molecule is the best Czech play of 2018

The play The Elegance of the Molecule, whose creation was initiated and financially supported by the Neuron Endowment Fund, has won the Theatre Critics' Award in the category "Czech play premiered". The play, written by the director Petr Zelenka for the Dejvice Theatre, charts the life of prof. Antonín Holý — an exceptional Czech scientist whose drugs help millions of HIV-positive patients around the world. We are delighted that we could be part of such a wonderful project, and we congratulate them!

The significance of prof. Holý is summed up by his collaborator and chair of the Scientific Board of the Neuron Endowment Fund, Pavel Hobza: "Antonín Holý is without doubt one of the greatest figures of Czech and world science of the second half of the 20th century. His diligence and persistence resulted in the creation of the most successful drugs against HIV, which halted the threatening catastrophe of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s. His discoveries have saved and continue to save the lives of more than 50 million people all over the world."

"We are delighted that thanks to this play we could introduce to the public one of the real figures pushing back the boundaries of human possibility, Professor Antonín Holý. Thanks to his ground-breaking discovery of specific antivirals it is today possible to fight AIDS and hepatitis B effectively. And not only that: his patents significantly helped to fund one of the world's best and most modern institutions, which develops top-class science in the Czech Republic and attracts excellent young scientists from around the world to Prague," adds Monika Vondráková, chair of the administrative board of the Neuron Endowment Fund.

Czech Television made a report about the play, explaining how it came about and the background to prof. Holý's breakthrough discovery.

You should not miss a performance of the play, the reviews are excellent! The website aktualne.cz judges: "In The Elegance of the Molecule the author ingeniously combines documentary elements with fiction, plays clearly with time levels, and lightens the seriousness of the subject with easy humour and a cynical grin. He deliberately does not shy away from gentle pathos and sentiment either, especially in the scenes depicting the sad end of a molecular chemist afflicted by Parkinson's disease."

The nearest performances of the play can be found in the programme of the Dejvice Theatre.

Would you like to learn more about the story of prof. Holý and his discoveries? Listen to the account of his collaborator Erik de Clercq in Hyde Park Civilizace.

The original script by the director Petr Zelenka was staged by the actors of the Dejvice Theatre with dramaturgy by Olga Šubrtová.