Drama Revue 3/2001
Summary

L. Jungmannová: The Myth about Three Unities or Search for the Malefactor

The study deals with problematics of so called principle of Three Dramatic Unities. The works tries to prove that the idea of preservation of these dramatic unities (unity of Time, Place and Action) which were considered canonical in all the history of theatre and it was felt as the only right norm in certain periods of developement of theatre, in fact doesnit spring from Aristotle's Poetics as it is often connected with, but its definition starts from normative poetics of Classicism. The contemplating of the phenomenon of three unities, its changes and the changes of opinions about it logically deals also with contemplating of various errors (especially in Czech theory of theatre), which are related with the defining and the demarcation of these unities.

V. Just: Faust and Gnosis (II.)

During the search for the gnostic roots of Goethe's Faust we cannot in any case pass the key scene of the contract between Faust and Mephistopheles. This scene connects Prologue in Heaven (bet between the Lord and Mephistopheles) with the very end of the work (5th act of the 2nd part). It makes a new structure of an old story. And it can be felt in gnostic way again. Faust (as the Lord before him) is aware of the godlike substance of the man, his "second" soul (Pneuma). Mephistopheles, the ruler of finality, considers him to be a prisoner of the materiality (Hyle) and that's why he offers him lifelong idleness, slavery for instincts. Faust refuses this low offer, and the traditional contract is not settled. Instead of this there will be at stake the defence (the life) or on the contrary the fossilization (the death) of Faust's "second" soul (Pneuma). It is the sense of well-known phrase: "Verweile doch.". Faust's bet at neverending movement of the Spirit can be understood as straight opposite of gnostic "rest" (Anapausis). Goethe's hero displays in addition in many scenes (The Spirit of Earth, Mothers) traditional attribute of all Fausts - Pride (Superbia) which destructs him at last. He is saved through the Angels by Divine Love (Mater Gloriosa) winning against sensuality (Mephistopheles). It is the only firm principle of Goethe's (but also gnostic) universe.

P. Pavlovský: Dance (and Pantomime) in Czech Theory

Dance in narrower sense is taken as a non-subject genre of moving art. Its counterpart in genre is ballet. The difference between dance and ballet against pantomime is the specific organization and stylization of movement, which is common material of their means of expression. The basis of this stylization is always certain way of rhythm, often connected with the music, towards which most of dance creations are in meta-sign relation. Dance is not unconditionally audiovisual art, it is possible even without sound. Dance can be presented in theatrical or non-theatrical way, i.e. both in the field of direct contact of the dancers with audience and in the field of the movement generated technically (dance of mobiles or kinetic objects, dance in cartoons) or recorded and again reproduced two-dimensional image of human dancing movement (dance in the other kinds of cinematography). Although the dance is basically felt as the kind of theatre (dancing theatre), it is necessary to claim that in many of its creations it has overstepped - more than ever before - the field of pure theatre.

V. Mikulka: Wandering Through the Banal and Bloody History of the Communism (Steigerwald's Play Hoře, hoře, strach, oprátka a jáma)

Karel Steigerwald began to write his drama Hooe, hooe, strach, oprátka a jáma (The Grief, Grief, Fear, the Halter and the Pit) shortly before the collapse of the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia, and finished it just couple of months afterwards. Though all the previous Steigerwald's plays were hidden polemics against the totalitarian communist regime, Hoře, hoře, strach, oprátka a jáma for the first time openly described the history of the communism as an absurd chain of cruel and bloody events. Loosely based upon the memoirs of Naděžda Mandelštam, Hoře, hoře, strach, oprátka a jáma is the most radical refusal of both theory and praxis of the communism in the Czech post-war drama.