Drama Revue 2/2003
Summary

J. Černý: 1945 (Czech Theatre and Society in 1945)

In the description of two visits of president Beneš in Moscow during the World War II there is in short described the way how the democratic Czechoslovak Republic got - in the beginning not entirely demonstrably - under the bondage of totalitarian USSR. In a few detailed cuts there is shown the naivité of Czech democrats who from the beginning unconsciously played into the hands of totalitarian tendencies, and well thought-out deliberate tactics of communists noiselessly transferring centralized structures of protectorate into socialist ones. After introduction of radical rudimentary vision of E. F. Burian and M. Kouřil for reconstruction of Czech theatre culture there are chronologically described single realization steps of this socializing reform connected with pogrom purge in the line of pre-war Czech theatre notables (V. Burian etc.). The characteristics of the change of theatre dramaturgy (it consisted foremost in introduction of Soviet drama) preceded critical inventarisation of single after-May stages: from ephemers, attractive débuts (Theatre of Satire, Disk) and new couraugeous concepts (Realistic Theatre, Theatre of 5th May) to the return of E. F. Burian. The other part of the study describes how the revolution was reflected in the work of established stages: National Theatre (including its new Studio), Municipal Theatre of Prague, Větrník and various musical theatres. The last part of study depicts the changes of theatre out of Prague theatre centre.

V. Ptáčková: Josef Svoboda (New Attempt at Portrait)

Josef Svoboda (1920-2002) is creator of more than 600 scenographic designs for productions of all theatre genres on which he cooperated with the best Czech and foreign directors. By the self-confident incorporating of technical possibilities of the stage he opened in pioneer way the horizons of the possibilities of this branch of culture not known till that time. With his contemporaries, directors Alfréd Radok and Václav Kašlík, he launched in 1945 on Great Opera of 5th May stage in Prague new way of work which forestalled the time more than tens of years. With the director Bohumil Hrdlička he proposed by the staging of Mozart's Magic Flute (1957) the possibility of interpretation which was in European scale discovered and appraised more than quarter of century later as so called "Interpretationstil". With the director Otomar Krejča he cooperated in 60th of 20th century in breaking conception of the Tchechov's drama. He also took part in forming of Laterna Magica, theatre with exclusive orientation for technics, the core of which was discovery which allowed simultaneous action of the actor and film and in addition polyecran multiplication of the character of actor. As one of the first he didn't feel bond by the regulations of the contemporary style. He didn't play in post-modern way with the "ruins of past", he didn't feel humour or nostalgy of the fact that everything had been already discovered. He didn't emphasize the number or the weight of cultural layers the collage of which should create the sensitivity of the man of "late time", he composed his discoveries of the reality with the pleasure of discoverer. He was the type of experimentator able to anticipate and assign the parameters of development.

P. Klein: Theatre Manifests of Russian Symbolism

Theatre manifests of Russian symbolism present the most important source of information about the creation of distinctive alternatives of thinking inside the formation of modern art in Russian environment. As the first realised single practical attempt to present symbolism on Russian stages which were impossible to connect and follow the continual development of this direction as the whole, these manifests belong to the basic sources mapping single phases of this direction. The essay tries to elucidate the manifests of the most important symbolistic poets, playwrights and directors. The main interest is dedicated to the comparison of old-symbolist aesthetics (Merezkovski, Gippius, Briusov) with later theories of young-symbolists (Blok, Biely, Ivanov), with added specific points of view of their fellow-travellers (Vaskevic, Sologub, Culkov etc.)

J. Volek, P. Pavlovský: The Borders of the Term "Art"

The term ART indicates sort of phenomena with more or less stabilized core and vice versa out-of focus borders. The convertible ability of its extent is historically displayed in the fact that the certain type of creativity was for a long time recognized as an art but now it is not or vice versa. And there are also causes where one or the other phenomenon was episodically taken for an art. Although we don't see it in the line of permanent development, we can't find clear bounds in any peripheral area of the art, but only transient range. It basically divides into extensive (art - out of art: such man-made creations which compensate probable lowering or limits of art function by some other function important for man) and intensive (art - non-art: loss or decreasing of artness doesn't substitute existence or increasing of other positive function). Inside the extensive transient area we recognise also the semi-extensive transit, where the compensation of art functioning having been mixed with its de-compensation, so the product provides firstly the satisfaction to the creators by its creative and partly receiving motivation and so it has the positive out-of-art function.

T. Syrovátka: The Changes of Causal Relations in the Theatre and in Drama

The article depicts how important role is played by causal relations in various theatre cultures and epochs. Aristotle in his Poetics takes the action as the base of the tragedy. This approach predicts dominant status of causal and linear principle in European theatre. Metaphoric culture of Asia, where other conception of time dominates, uses the causal relations in the epical not dramatical way. The disorders of causal relations are typical for modern European drama. Post-modern theoretically deliminates the causality against randomness, post-modern theatre prefers accidental relations. The development of theatre culture is comparable to the history of moderne science. The contemporary art and science are stigmatized by sceptical point of view that all the models of reality are insufficient. Negative attitude to causal structure in the theatre and in drama are connected with post-structuralistic point of view at the language and by the refusal of logocentric culture.