Divadelní revue (Czech Theatre Review) vol. 31 · 2020 · n^o 3

Summary

The third issue of the 2020's Czech Theatre Review presents two analyses and one essay. In her paper “Protectorate Radio Play and Production – ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Stigma’ ”, Lenka Jugmannová discusses literary work for radio during the period of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1948), which, despite the difficult social situation, saw a tremendous boom – about three hundred original plays were written and broadcasted. Moreover, the radio dramaturgy advocated for plays that would not resign to the thematic inventiveness and original rendition. The purpose of this emancipation, which Pierre Bourdieu discussed in relation to the 19 th -century French literature, was to enforce the originality of the radio drama. During the occupation, however, dramaturgy also added an “emancipation” in the political sense, as the original plays generally intended to encourage national identity. The aim of the essay is therefore (1) to characterize this area of literary production and (2) to point out the reasons for the historiographical marginalization of the protectorate radio drama. Martin J. Švejda and Věra Velemanová in their joint-analysis “Yes, that's what it's about.” Hamlet – The Brothers Karamazov – Theatre on the Balustrade 1978/1979 examine the 1978/1979 season of the Theatre on the Balustrade, in which its drama ensemble presented two productions staged by Evald Schorm: Shakespeare's first quarto (Q1) of Hamlet (originally entitled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke) and the dramatization of Dostoevsky's The Karamazov Brothers. In the introduction, the authors describe the situation in the ensemble after the emigration of the artistic director Jaroslav Chundela, who left the country at the beginning of the 1978/1979 season. In the second and third part, they analyze the productions and their reception. In conclusion, the authors emphasize the fact that in the period upon Chundela’s emigration, two external collaborators of the theatre – guest director Evald Schorm and theatre scholar and Schorm's dramaturge Milan Lukeš – became the key figures and driving force of the theatre. The presented issue of Czech Theatre Review unintentionally reflects the current corona- crisis in the sense of the absence of the traditional interview with a significant personality of Czech or foreign theatre scholar. As a replacement, we have prepared an unpublished interview from Barbara Day's archive. In 1983, the English scholar interviewed Czech scholar, dramaturge and reviewer Milan Lukeš, which she conducted as part of her Ph.D. project, and which is related to Martin J. Švejda and Věra Velemanová's essay. On that occasion, Barbara Day wrote a short introduction, in which she describes her academic visits to Czechoslovakia od 1970s and 1980s, and the circumstances of not only this interview. Ten years later, already in the post-revolutionary time of 1993, the editors of the Polish magazine Dialog published the discussion of several Polish theatre scholars and practitioners with Eugenia Barby, which is – coincidentally – called “We will do without applause”. Jana Pilátová translated this inspiring conversation in 1994 for the needs of her students; you will find it in this issue with an extensive essay called “Anamnesis”, which addresses topical questions about the current situation of theatre and society. Petra Ježková, who has been a member of the Czech Theatre Review editorial board since the last issue, has prepared a set of six papers from the August Summer Symposium of Theatre Studies in Mikulov. In the presented issue, you will find a review of the Italian Bohemist Vicenza Scuderi on Zuzana Augustová's new book on post-war Austrian drama, and Martin Vlček wrote about the exhibition Welcome to Theatre at the National Museum.

essays & documents

Lenka Jungmannová
Protectorate Radio Play and Production. “Blank Space" and “Stigma" [peer-reviewed article]

Martin J. Švejda – Věra Velemanová
“Yes, that's what it's about." Hamlet – The Brothers Karamazov: Theatre on the Balustrade 1978/1979 [peer-reviewed article]

interview

Barbara Day with Milan Lukeš about Theatre on the Balustrade (Dialog, 1983)

Barbara Day
“By this point he had checked that the tape recorder was not running...” Visiting Prague as student in the early 1980s

Jana Pilátová
Anamnesis. Not only to the debate on the Third Theatre
We'll do without applause (1993)
Notes and comments

Summer Symposium of Theatre Studies in Mikulov

Petra Ježková
[First Summer Symposium of Theatre Studies...]

Magdaléna Jacková
Bumbálek and Ms. Malenka. Untypical Hero of an Untypical. Jesuit Play about One-Day King

Stanislav Bohadlo
Dwarfs in Kuks – Bizzar Statues or Actors' Roles? Theatrum mundi in theatro kuckusii

Berenika Zemanová
Actors, Actresses and Their Ailments

Klára Škrobánková
Pepitarausch and Silesian Shower. Opavian Fiasco of Pepita de Oliva, the Dancer

Otto Drexler
“Grand heart died. Good night, my prince! And may angels' choir sing you to peace!” Funeral Testimony in Josef Träger's Inheritance

Věra Velemanová
Praiseworthy Mission of Kleptomania in Czech Scenography. Principal of Objet Trouvé in Libor Fára's Scenography for the Production Josef Topol's Play Two Nigh

review

Vincenza Scuderi
Permanent Offending Audience (Zuzana Augustová: Experiment jako kritika nacismu: Poválečné rakouské experimentální drama)

Martin Vlček
They already carry it!, or else Surrounded by the Reproductios of Theatre Signboards (Welcome to Theatre. Exhibiton at the National Museum)

new book relases

(October–November 2020)

Lenka Jungmanová
Protectorate Radio Play and Production. “Blank Space" and “Stigma" [peer-reviewed article]
Lenka Jungmannová: Protectorate Radio Play and Production – “Blank Space” and “Stigma”. The essay discusses literary work for radio during the period of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1948), which, despite the difficult social situation, saw a tremendous boom – about three hundred original plays were written and broadcasted. Moreover, the radio dramaturgy advocated for plays that would not resign to the thematic inventiveness and original rendition. The purpose of this emancipation, which Pierre Bourdieu discussed in relation to the 19 th -century French literature, was to enforce the originality of the radio drama. During the occupation, however, dramaturgy also added an “emancipation” in the political sense, as the original plays generally intended to encourage national identity. The aim of the essay is therefore (1) to characterize this area of literary production and (2) to point out the reasons for the historiographical marginalization of the protectorate radio drama.
Contact: Lenka Jungmannová | Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR | jungmannova@ucl.cas.cz.

Martin J. Švejda – Věra Velemanová
“Yes, that's what it's about." Hamlet – The Brothers Karamazov: Theatre on the Balustrade 1978/1979 [peer-reviewed article]
The study examines the 1978/1979 season of the Theatre on the Balustrade, in which its drama ensemble presented two productions staged by Evald Schorm: Shakespeare's first quarto (Q1) of Hamlet (originally entitled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke) and the dramatization of Dostoevsky's The Karamazov Brothers. In the introduction, the authors describe the situation in the ensemble after the emigration of the artistic director Jaroslav Chundela, who left the country at the beginning of the 1978/1979 season. In the second and third part, they analyze the productions and their reception. In conclusion, the authors emphasize the fact that in the period upon Chundela's emigration, two external collaborators of the theatre – guest director Evald Schorm and theatre scholar and Schorm's dramaturge Milan Lukeš – became the key figures and driving force of the theatre.
Contacts: Martin J. Švejda | Kabinet pro studium českého divadla, Institut umění – Divadelní ústav | martin.svejda(at)idu.cz
Contacts: Věra Velemanová | Kabinet pro studium českého divadla, Institut umění – Divadelní ústav | vera.velemanova(at)idu.cz