Czech
avant-garde
Theatre
Elitistic
Or
Popular?




Walter Gropius
Project
of
Total
theatre

Some general features of Czech theatre avantgarde
French (Apollinaire, Breton) and Russian (constructivism, Tairov, Meyerchold) inspirations
Fascinated with modern pop-culture (film, cabaret, music-hall, jazz)
Montage – Synthetism
Director as key element
Search for new acting
lOsvobozené divadlo /Liberated Theatre was founded in 1925 as theatre section of Děvětsil group
lFirst performance in April 1926 – Circus Dandin (based of Moliére) directed by Jiří Frejka

Alfred Jarry: King Ubu
Apollinaire:
Les Mamelles de Tirésias

Emil František Burian
(1904-1959)
Educated as musician / composer
Founder of VOICEBAND group
Jazz singer, theatre performer and finally
Theatre director
In 1933 establishes his theatre D 34

Divadlo D 34 / Theatre D 34
And
theathergraph

The old opera composers composed chromatic stage storms for the strings, lightning for the piccolo
and thunder for tympani. (…) An obvious metaphor would emerge from this example if the orchestra
was playing from the speakers in the auditorium and there were several projection screens placed on
stage, showing enlarged rain drops falling towards the audience. The stage would be covered in
silver mesh, reflected by the mirrors into the audience. The rhythm of the whole stage picture
would have to correspond with the rhythm and the colour of the orchestra. The audience would
probably run away in fear that they will get wet or stricken by lightning.

1936 – stage adaptation of Czech romantic poem
Máj / The May by Karel Hynek Mácha

















1938 – Goethe The Sorrows of Young Werther






1935 - Frank Wedeking Spring Awakening















The WAR / Vojna
1935 – script based on folk poetry


Vest Pocket Revue – 1927 (245 performances)



Jan Werich (1905-1980)
Jiří Voskovec (1905-1981)





Voskovec and Werich in cinema
Pudr a benzin / Make-up and Petrol 1931 Peníze nebo život / Life or Money 1932
Hej-Rup! 1934
Svět patří nám / The World belongs to Us 1937







Further reading
Jarka M. Burian
Leading Creators of Twentieth-Century Czech Theatre
Bílke, Vojvodík, Wiendl (eds).
A Glossary of Catchwords of the Czech Avant-Garde