The Makropulos Affair

The Makropulos Affair (or The Makropulos Case, Czech: Věc Makropulos) is a play written by Karel Čapek and first performed on 21 November 1922 in the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague. Between 1923 and 1925, the play was turned into an opera of the same name by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, who wrote his own libretto.The play, described as a ""comedy"", was produced at the Arts Theatre in London, under the name The Macropulos Secret, on 8 July 1930. The producer was A. R. Whatmore and the cast included André van Gyseghem as Vitek, Lesley Wareing as Krista and Donald Wolfit as Jaroslav Prus.The Makropulos Affair forms the centre of a classic article by Bernard Williams, in which he argues that a person never has reason to live an immortal life.