Plot Summary

It is often only a few hundred meters from the chemical laboratory to the nearest pharmacy. But on this journey, the drug molecule undergoes a process worth hundreds of millions of dollars, often involving thousands of people. That is, the molecule that is lucky enough to reach its destination. The play Elegance of the Molecule follows three such substances and their three "fathers," one of whom was the brilliant Czech chemist Professor Antonín Holý. It explores the creation and dramatic industrial development of substances from Czech chemical laboratories that today treat AIDS in more than sixty percent of patients worldwide. Otto Wichterle had his famous story about how he built a device for centrifuging the first contact lenses using a Merkur construction kit. Petr Zelenka's play looks for such a "Merkur" in the life of chemist Antonín Holý.