Drama Revue 2/2001
Summary

J. Černý: 1952 (Czech Theatre and the Society in 1952)

The second part of extensive annals of the theatre of fifties in 20th Century is dedicated to the year 1952. It begins with the outline of political trials and it descibes the changes that were connected in culture with the "disclosure of conspiratorial party centre" of Rudolf Slánský which was judged in the end of that year. The typical example of this confusion till that time firm dogmatic criteria are the discussions between Jan Kopecký and Jaroslav Pokorný. The anti-directorial campaigns were broken by the performance of Lavrentiev's Break under the direction of Soviet director A. V. Sokolov. It didn't change anything on the fact that just in that year director Alfred Radok was put aside to semi-amateur Vesnické divadlo (Village Theatre) and director Frejka was driven to suicide.
The core of the essay is formed by the analysis of the plays put on Czech stages in 1952. The author consequently analyzes the drama of socialist realism, "compulsory" Soviet drama and plays of Czech and world classics which were staged in that year. The essay is finished by "the homicidal conclusion of the year 1952"; the spectacular trial with the conspirational centre of Rudolf Slánský (eleven death sentences), the trial with the actress Jiřina Štěpničková, sentenced to 15 years long imprisonment, and the suicide of the National Theatre actor Jiří Plachý.

V. Just: Faust and Gnosis (I.)

Goethe's Faust - as its permanently valid base, the Faustus' myth - bears endless variations of interpretations. We went through the atheistic and catholic, nazi and marxist, constructive and esotheric ones during the time. One of constantly valid interpretations although not actualizing by force offers the ancient (both medieval and modern) gnosis. The context of Faust and the gnosis is variated: the author himself admitted gnosis, and was - both right way or mediatedly - influenced by it. And his hero, Faust, uttered in critical moment right before the reveal of Mefistopheles, gnostic confession about "two souls in his breast". Also the topic of recollection, the evocation of past lives and awakening of the fragments of immortal soul (Holy Spirit) in human heart was close to Goethe and he enshrined it in various parts of Faust. There is still the task to explain the topic of love, Faustus's "anima" (Gretchen, Helena, Maria), because is offers many analogies with the gnosis too. As well as the mystical Goethe's Theory of Colours...

V. A. Stcherbakov: The Problems of the Reconstruction of Meyerhold's Scores of Direction

Newly reconstructed scores of direction of V. Meyerhold should be very important for theatrologists , although not as the only one instrument for understanding of the creative work of this artist. But if we wanted to publish it completely, we had to print again all the texts of the plays. In the case of staging of Ostrovsky's The Forest (1924) the publication would be useful because the text in Meyerhold's montage is substantially mixed-up and is basicly a new piece of work. The discussion over The Forest (very successful staging the life of which was finished only after the liquidation of Meyerhold's theatre in 1938) continued more than ten years. It became the turning point on the way of emancipation of modern directing. Apart from few issues of text (for prompter, stage-manager etc.) there are preserved the lists of mock-up subjects, the drawings of construction, light score and the "tables of viewer's reactions". For our disposal there are also the results of Meyerhold's "scientific laboratory" that was fixing the arrangement both by the description and grafically. In spite of this the observations of reviewers verificated by the participants of the staging showed themselves more accurate: the process of the reconstruction of the score must be attended by constant confrontation of all information we have.

Š. Balík: The Defilement of the Language of Pitínský Jan Antonín

This study concerns Pitínský's play Matka (The Mother). Basically Matka is a tragicomic paradox: although the main character of the mother lies behind disasters which befall the worlds of politics (father), love (Antonín - Anděla), respect towards old age, respect towards people generally (the grandfather), at the end she comes to accept all of these values: she falls in love with Zoban (renamed Jindořch) and she intends playing a political role and helping those people who place their trust in her. This principle of paradox does not only affect the semantic structure, but it is reflected in language too. The defilement of language is not a purposeless device: deformation of language mirrors the deformation of behaviour demostrated by some characters; i.e. mixing elements and phrases from different places, styles and times reveals implicitely not just uncertainty of communication, but also human values and above all moral limits. On the whole, the linguistic and semantic structures complement each other. Pitínský evokes the clear bipolarity of the world by reflecting on a linguistic level the sharp borders between the spheres of good and evil, thereby lending the play a mythic quality. The protagonists display animalistic features and execute draconian punishments when family traditions are sullied. The principle of Darwinistic natural selection is merely a cover for the mother's ultimate brutal goal, which is the slaughter of those members who are burdensome.
Matka is a tragicomic metaphore of the communist dictatorship. Language drawn from realms of totalitarianism is used within the private sphere of the family, so we can see totalitarianism played out in microcosm, the mother being the callous manipulator. However, the Matka is not explicitly situated into any particular temporal or historical context, it is obvious that the background, against which the linguistic, semantic and semiotic motifs are played out, reflects a time around 1950, a period closely linked with the cult of the person, for example "proletarian" vocabulary and the semantic shift of words like režim (regime), norma (norm) or tradice (tradition). The final hyperbolic ridicule of Čapek's Matka (i.e. positive matriarchy) and the disastrous influence of her evil sister relates not only to postmodern understanding, but also to the crisis of moral values experienced in the twentieth century. A purely postmodern element is the constant word plays, which help to add an element of playfulness to the text...