Divadelní revue (Czech Theatre Review) 2016 · no 1

vol. 27 · Juin 2016 · no 1

Summary

The first issue of 2016’s Theatre Review brings forward three thematic sections. The first section addresses topics related to William Shakespeare. Filip Krajník’s analysis “ ‘Dead in his bed’: Sleeping Victims and Hesitant Murderers in Elizabethan Histories” discusses several Elizabethan history plays that were staged between 1590–1595 and that contained a scene with the assassination of an aristocratic figure in his bed. The article analyses the parallels between the scenes and attempts to shed light on the possible genesis and development of the theatergram. The text argues that, although the topic of victimisation of a sleeping figure had been a popular trope since the Middle Ages, the specific form of the dramatic situation was probably developed within one Elizabethan theatrical company (the Earl of Pembroke’s Men) as a kind of fashionable wave to satisfy the tastes of the audiences. In this section we bring to our readers a translation of James Shapiro’s chapter Leir to Lear from his recent book 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear (2015). In the comparative chapter, Shapiro analyses the genesis of Shakespeare’s King Lear which extensively drew on the anonymous but extant play King Leir (1594, published 1605). As part of the “Shakespearean section” we bring out Lída Engelová’s rehearsal diary which presents her personal experience with Peter Brook’s ground-breaking production of William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970). Engelová, Brook’s assistant director for the production of Dream, prepared her diary for the official publication in 1973. However, the book was – due to various reasons – never released (a part of the diary was used in Engelová’s afterword for the publication of Czech translation of Brook’s Empty Space in 1988). Theatre Review puts out the first comprehensive publication of the extraordinary testimony of the extraordinary theatre piece which was – later on – dedicated to Otomar Krejča’s Theatre Beyond the Gate, Czech theatre studio shut down by the communist authorities in 1972. The Shakespearean section concludes with the re-print of photographs and reproductions that are related to Jan Bor’s production of Macbeth (1939) with the set design by Vlastislav Hofman. The second section – analyses – consists of two essays that address topics connected with the acting, mime, and dance. Martina Musilová’s “François Delsarte and his system of actor’s education” discusses the life and work of the French actor, singer and teacher François Delsarte (1811–1871). Since 1830s Delsarte had conducted the research of acting expression in relation to the voice and actor’s education. His interest in the gestural and vocal expression of people exceeded the narrow field of aesthetics towards the anthropology. The study analyzes Delsarte’s concept of semiotics of gesture that was significantly influenced by the triadic philosophy of St. Augustine and Dionysius the Areopagite, as well as the principle of correspondence. Apart from that, the essay reminds us of the impact of Delsarte’s system on the representatives of European and American modernism and avant-garde. Ladislava Petišková’s “Mime Richard Weber: An Attempt at a Portrait” is the first comprehensive report on the life and work of the mime R. Weber, who – despite his successful engagement with the mime ensemble of the Theatre on the Balustrade – left the country in the mid- 970s 1 in order to realize his ideas in the field of mime. He belongs to a group of Czech theatre artists who remain – although famous abroad – virtually unknown in their home country. The study examines a white spot of Czech theater studies, caused by the post-1968 censorship. The study summarizes Weber’s activities in Czechoslovakia and in Switzerland, where he co-founded with clown Dimitri Scuola Teatro Dimitri/Accademia Dimitri, one of the best contemporary schools of mime and physical theatre. The study also discusses Weber’s contribution to the field of pedagogy, as well as his dramaturgical and directorial influence, which significantly shaped the modern form of the mime. The third section – essay – contains Jan Císař’s reflection of the changing role of dramaturgy in the Czech post-war theatre in which the author summarizes his practical, as well as theoretical and pedagogic experiences in the field of dramaturgy. The issue includes an interview with the theatre historian Alice Dubská. It contains three reviews of recently published books and Petr Hlávka’s critical response to Bořivoj Srba’s book Genesius’ Awakening.

shakespeare

Filip Krajník
“Dead in his bed”: Sleeping Victims and Hesitant Murderers in Elizabethan Histories [article]


James Shapiro
From Leir to Lear [essay]

Honza Petružela
Brook’s Dream of Lída Engelová [essay]

Lída Engelová
Towards the Dream [essay]

Lída Engelová
Rehearsal Diary [document]

Vojtěch Poláček
Macbeth, National Theatre, Prague, 1939 [document]

Bibliography of Shakespearean essays published in Divadelní revue, 1989–2015 analyses

Martina Musilová
François Delsarte and his system of actor’s education [article]


Ladislava Petišková
Mime Richard Weber: An Attempt at a Portrait [article]


essays

Jan Císař
What is Dramaturgy and how to teach It? [essay]

interview

History is still an adventure for me. Interview with the theatre historian Alice Dubská (Nina Malíková)

reviews

Ladislava Petišková
Jiří Frejka from DAMU (Frejkovy Schovávané na schodech. Poezie a politika.)

Martin J. Švejda
Book — Semi-finished Product (Lenka Jungmannová: Příběhy obyčejných šílenství.)

Vladimír Just
Ideologically blurred Awakening (Bořivoj Srba: Prozření Genesiovo. Inscenační tvorba pražských českých činoherních divadel za německé okupace a druhé světové války 1939–1945.)

new book releases (December 2015—April 2016)

ad Miloš Hlávka

Andrea Jochmanová
To Petr Hlávka’s Philippic (in place of an introduction)

Petr Hlávka
Philippic to Genesius’ Awakening [letter]

Resumes of peer-reviewed articles

Filip Krajník
“Dead in his bed”: Sleeping Victims and Hesitant Murderers in Elizabethan Histories.

Between 1590 and 1595, several Elizabethan history plays were staged that contained a scene with the assassination of an aristocratic figure in his bed. According to the common pattern (or theatergram), the innocent or penitent character was usually approached by a couple of hired murderers, one of whom has suddenly an attack of conscience, expressing doubts about the morality of the deed, yet, ultimately, killing the victim anyway. All of the plays in question (the Second Part of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, his Richard III, Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, and the anonymous Thomas of Woodstock and The True Tragedy of Richard III) show remarkable thematic and verbal similarities that can hardly be explained by mere coincidence or an occasional borrowing of one author from another. The present article analyses the parallels between the individual scenes and attempts to shed some light on the possible genesis and development of the theatergram. The text argues that, although the topic of victimisation of a sleeping figure had been a popular dramatic trope since the Middle Ages, the specific form of the dramatic situation was probably developed within one Elizabethan theatrical company (the Earl of Pembroke’s Men) as a kind of fashionable wave to satisfy the tastes of the audiences of that period. All of the plays is question are, in one way or another, connected with the young Shakespeare, who seems to have picked up the trope to make use of it both in the period discussed and his later works, in which we can find the original theatergram in a more complex and, perhaps, more sophisticated form.

Contact: Filip Krajník (Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University , Brno) — filip.krajnik(at)gmail.com

Martina Musilová
François Delsarte and his system of actor’s education.

The study discusses the life and work of the French actor, singer and teacher François Delsarte (1811–1871). Since 1830s Delsarte had conducted the research of acting expression in relation to the voice and actor’s education. His interest in the gestural and vocal expression of people exceeded the narrow field of aesthetics towards the anthropology. The study analyzes Delsarte’s concept of semiotics of gesture that was significantly influenced by the triadic philosophy of St. Augustine and Dionysius the Areopagite, as well as the principle of correspondence. Apart from that, the essay reminds us of the impact of Delsarte’s system on the representatives of European and American modernism and avant-garde.

Contact: Martina Musilová (Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University , Brno) — martina-musilova(at)seznam.cz

Ladislava Petišková
Mime Richard Weber: An Attempt at a Portrait.

The study is the first comprehensive report on the life and work of the mime R. Weber, who – despite his successful engagement with the mime ensemble of the Theatre on the Balustrade – left the country in the mid-1970s in order to realize his ideas in the field of mime. He belongs to a group of Czech theatre artists who remain – although famous abroad – virtually unknown in their home country. The study examines a white spot of Czech theater studies, caused by the post-1968 censorship. The study summarizes Weber’s activities in Czechoslovakia and in Switzerland, where he co-founded with clown Dimitri Scuola Teatro Dimitri / Accademia Dimitri, one of the best contemporary schools of mime and physical theatre. The study also discusses Weber's contribution to the field of pedagogy, as well as his dramaturgical and directorial influence, which significantly shaped the modern form of the mime.

Contact: Ladislava Petišková (independet scholar, Prague) — ladislavapetiskova@seznam.cz