Where the “Slow Moving Water” of Czech Theatre is Flowing (Marie Reslová)

In the spring of 2001, the Czech theatre critics bestowed their highest award (the Alfréd Radok Award for the Best Production of the Year) on an opera production, for already the second time in the past decade. Does this mean that Czech drama is running out of breath, or does this in fact signal the unprecedented ascent of the art of opera production in the Czech Republic?

The paradox is, that directors of drama theatre have been playing an important role in the opera world development. Quite frequently, their operatic debuts have even initiated serious discussion and the interest of theatre critics, who before, more often than not, only wandered into opera productions by mistake. Thus, for example, Jan Antonín Pitínský won the prestigious A. Radok Award two years ago for his first opera production, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (J. K. Tyl Theatre, Pilsen). Jiří Pokorný conceived the staging of Fibich’s Šárka (ibid. ), whose story moved from the mythic times in Czech history to the totalitarian atmosphere of the fifties, initiating discussion not only in the press, but also debate about the meaning and future of the Pilsen opera scene at the city’s municipal offices. Vladimír Morávek was belittled by part of the professional public for his daring interpretation of Puccini’s Tosca (National Theatre, Prague), while by others, for the same, unreservedly commended. To those – in addition to the above mentioned - who have made the move from drama to opera production, have also gradually joined: Hana Burešová, Petr Lébl, Jan Schmid, Nina Vangeli, and finally Michal Dočekal, the future drama director of the National Theatre. That this year, David Radok, who specializes in opera production, received the A. Radok Award for his production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, is the exception, rather than the rule.

Also connected with the emancipation of opera in the context of Czech theatre, is the increasing number of singers recognized for their dramatic performances and the increasingly expressive and metaphorical scenographic conception of opera productions. It appears that just at the time when contemporary Czech theatre and drama are increasingly losing their form’s foothold, drama producers are being drawn to the opera score’s resolutely prescribed form: a high degree of stylisation and abstraction is possible – even required – within the framework of its strict order. Next to the somewhat dormant drama, where clearly none of last year’s productions - as is incidentally obvious from the various annual surveys and awards – have moved the stagnant surface of current theatre repertory, opera work appears as an anomaly, clearly needless to emphasize, that this criteria, notwithstanding, is only relative.

The “sweet sixties” phenomenon

In the field of drama last year, the most embracing acceptance and highest recognition from the critics went, paradoxically, to what is known as “family” productions (defined as for children with adult accompaniment). The sixties in the Czech Republic have, already for the second time, provided inspiration for theatre and an appealing background for de facto musical stories. A few years ago, it was the highly successful Stars on the Willow (Hvězdy na vrbě) at the HaDivadlo in Brno, and last year, the public no less enthusiastically welcomed the dramatization of the tale by Ludvík Aškenazy in Prague’s Theatre on Dlouhá (Divadlo v Dlouhé), called How I Got Lost. Even though the phenomenon of the “sweet sixties” by itself, can almost always be counted on to excite the Czech emotional memory (earning points in contemporary film as well), it is important to acknowledge the excellent quality of Jan Borna’s production. The dramatic accomplishment of Pavel Tesař in the role of the principal hero of the story – a small boy, who loses his father in the pre-Christmas Prague – is convincing due to its unsentimental child’s view, the improvised bravado of the chorus numbers and the playful scenographic invention.

Contemporary performances and expressive interpretations of the classics

Several Czech theatres have attempted to usher in original dramatic texts as part of their programs. Among them one, however – the Drama Studio (Činoherní Studio) in Ústí nad Labem – has had the daring to build more than a year of its existence on this risky repertoire. If this theatre was declared the Theatre of the Year 2000, it was perhaps because the Czech critics were awarding their own self-confident (a portion of the authors came directly from the group’s fold) uncompromising opinion and belief that these persistent attempts at contemporary plays will eventually lead to a revival of theatrical form and direct communication between the stage and the audience.

Among the directors whose stagings strongly scored in the annual reviews, two names were repeated several times: Vladimír Morávek and Jiří Pokorný. Both debuted in the previous year as opera directors with truly expressive interpretative performances of classic opera. Both were systematically devoted to contemporary drama – Pokorný’s direction of Ravenhill’s Faust was the most highly recognized, but high praise was also given to Morávek for his improvised interpretation of the performances of Rijnders’ Fanda and Steigerwald’s The Actresses (Herečky). Morávek’s staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet - among the three nominated productions for the Alfréd Radok Award – was controversially received. Its scenically opulently reinterpreted story, rough-hewn to the core, was both surprising and provoking, with its unexpectedly connected motives and unambiguous interpretation of the characters’ psychology. . .

Money, first and foremost 

The financing and administration of theatres continues to provoke serious discussion even ten years after the November revolution. This is certainly also caused by the funding problems in the state and municipal governments’ budgets. The issues are numerous, and the artistic future of Czech theatre depends upon their judicious resolution: Should all the stages have equal access to financial grant aid, or should some theatres also continue in the future as subsidized organizations of the local magistrates, with regular and de facto indisputable donations? What role will the newly developing administrative authorities - the regional district offices – play in the financing of the regional stages? What authority, and what extent of autonomy should the directors of the National Theatre’s individual companies have, and who should name them to their function? The answers to these and similar questions are arduously sought and, unfortunately (albeit for various reasons), often enough without the participation of those, whose fate is most affected – the people who make theatre.