VEČERNÍ FRONTA NA DIVÁKA – ČESKÁ DRAMATURGIE NA PŘELOMU 40. A 50. LET
QUEUEING UP FOR A SPECTATOR IN THE EVENING – CZECH DRAMATURGY ON THE VERGE OF 1940’S AND 1950’S

Summary/Abstract: The paper concerns problems of the Czech dramaturgy at the turn of the 40s and 50s of the 20th century. It deals with the period from the end of the 2nd World War to passing the Theatres Act in the March of 1948, which is fundamental for the after-war development of the Czech drama. It was in this period that was introduced new significance, message and goals of the theatre. At the beginning of the post-war period the main attention was not paid to the artistic sphere but to the transformation of the organization and operation of theatre. We observe, that confidence in administration interventions as the key instrument of direction was significant. The main demands of the time were decentralization, popular character, tendentiousness and democratization. Thus, in 1949, after the Theatres Act sanctified tendency and organization of the dramatic life done hithirto, it was the central uniformly directed dramaturgy, that arose central notice. The main aim of the drama was to reflect the construction and development of a new social life. Within this context is interpreted a play Večerní fronta („Evening Front“) by O. Daněk (premiere was in 1950, in a culminating year of the “construction of socialism” drama) involving the analysis of the structure of the so-called “výrobní drama” (drama taking place especially in factories) and of its strictly given artistic thematic and formal norms. Daněk’s play is a convincing illustration of the after-February transformation of the theatre and drama.

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