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Postoj človeka voči hercovi má dva póly: jeden je nadradený a nedôverčivý, ten druhý vychádza zo závisti. Tento postoj nie je nič nové pod slnkom: oba póly sú súčasťou našej trvalej reflexie a fascinácie herectvom od jeho pradávneho brieždenia a zrodu pred viac ako 2500 rokmi, keď sa divadlo začalo formovať z antických dionýzií.
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This study outlines the tradition of translation of ancient Greek drama in Slovakia. Most of the existing translations were made with a view to being staged by Slovak professional theatres, which had influenced their final literary form. There is a difference between translation for stage and translation for reading purposes only. The text of a drama is an essential medium for the director as the creator of a theatre performance; as a result, it must meet the requirement of currency and the ability to communicate with the audience. An out-of-date or unsuitable translation may therefore pose a problem. The study uses excerpts from the translations of Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus the King to demonstrate ways of approaching the translation of such texts and the conventions that are connected with them.
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The phenomenon of community theatre emerged on the Slovak theatre scene approximately in the 1990s. The first attempts were connected with art therapy. Community theatre, in the sense of working with the community, for the community and to the benefit of the community, which works with minorities and marginalized individuals, gradually began to professionalize itself. Since then it has gone through complicated development and produced different offshoots. At present there are professional ensembles focusing on stage production, semi professional ensembles and ensembles which use theatre techniques for therapeutic rather than aesthetic purposes. The author of this study deals with the gradual differentiation and developmental metamorphoses of community theatre.
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This study focuses on three instances of blasphemy in contemporary Russian culture: an artistic civic act (the performance of the Pussy Riot group in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour), musical theatre (the directorial interpretation of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser) and theatre texts (plays by the contemporary Russian playwright Ivan Vyrypaev). Different forms of blasphemy in particular works of art or artistic acts, as well as the consequent social discourse about them or social political impact on the main parties involved, give a picture of the social and political situation in Russia, the relationship of art, politics, power and censorship, as well as of the ethical values of contemporary society.
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William Shakespeare’s work has a very specific place in Miloš Pietor’s professional biography: it starts at the beginning of the artist’s creative period and then again at the end of his professional life. The study is devoted to this part of the director’s work. It analyzes the plays Merry Wives of Windsor (P. Jilemnický Theatre, 1963), Hamlet (Nová scéna Theatre 1974), comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost) (Nová scéna Theatre 1976) and presents the directorial and dramaturgical concept of Pietor’s first production after November 1989, The Merchant of Venice (1991). His planned premiere at the Slovak National Theatre (Slovenské národné divadlo) did not take place; the work was cancelled due to the director’s tragic death.
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Employing a comparative method, the present study explores the Renaissance expression of Jozef Ciller’s Shakespearean scenographies. Based on an analysis of preserved archival material (scenographic proposals, photographs from productions, video recordings, reviews, etc.) and personal communication with Jozef Ciller, the author examines how he transposed general features of European Renaissance (visual arts, architecture) into individual scenographic solutions. The author’s analysis also aims to identify how Ciller worked with the architecture and scenography of Elizabethan theatre Renaissance and observe his work with Renaissance elements depending on whether a scenography was meant for indoors or outdoors. The author concludes that Jozef Ciller employs Renaissance elements as motifs to preserve the awareness of man’s Renaissance spirit and greatness.
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The City Theatre in Pressburg began operation in 1886 in a newly-erected building (now the Historical Building of the Slovak National Theatre). The building belonged to the city, which rented it under a theatrical contract to the German and Hungarian theatre directors and their companies. The individuals in question were the German director Emanuel Raul (1843–1916) and the Hungarian director Ignácz Krecsányi (1844–1923), who were active in the City Theatre at the close of the 19th century. The city, as owner of the building, decided on the hiring of the theatre and influenced its everyday operation with stipulations. Selection of the repertoire was the responsibility of the director, who compiled a daily plan of performance based on requirements laid down in the contract, as well as the preferences of the regular audience. This was comprised of German-speaking inhabitants, a fact which is reflected clearly in the theatre’s attendance.
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In the light of gender studies, this paper examines how female singers and composers exercised their professions, and their social and artistic status, in the Bratislava City Theatre during the years 1886 – 1920. The source base is a study of the daily newspapers Preßburger Zeitung and Westungarischer Grenzbote. From what theatre critics wrote, it is concluded that both men and women could exercise the profession of singer with comparable success, with decisive criterion for evaluation being the singer’s performance and his/her creation of the theatrical role. A more detailed description is given of the guest performances of the singers Lujza Blaha (1850 – 1926) and Irma de Spányi (1861 – 1932). There were long-lasting prejudices against women composers. The positive reception of the premiere of the now lost opera Tamaro, by the Bratislava composer Countess Alexandrine Esterházy-Rossi, in the Bratislava Theatre (1907), is presented in the wider context of female musical creativity and contemporary domestic opera production, and also as proof of the gradual transformation of older conservative views.
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Anthropocentrism is one of the key concepts associated with a broken relationship between humans, or human society, and the natural world. An excessive focus on the human is among the debated shortcomings that exacerbates environmental crises. In environmental humanities, it is especially addressed by environmental ethics. Anthropocentrism as a problem also steps into the expert debate on environmental or ecologically oriented theatre and performing arts. These media are historically understood as media focused on the human, human society, human relationships, events, and history. In the presented study, some of the starting points of posthumanist philosophy that could enrich contemporary theories of theatre and performance art are considered, to help broaden their scope of attention to a group of specific works. These are various works of art confronting anthropocentrism, or using approaches that mediate non-anthropocentric and post-anthropocentric knowledge. From a theatrological point of view, they are identified in the framework of works which Hans-Thies Lehmann calls postdramatic theatre, however, from the perspective of philosophy, they are in a certain relation with the essential ideas of posthumanism as defined by Francesca Ferrando and Rosi Braidotti, to give an example. The study’s ambition is to provide fertile ground for a continued and more thorough perspective of a group of works that fall under performing arts (drama, theatre play, performance art), which primarily deal with the relationship between the human and nonhuman nature and offer unconventional ways of representing non-human nature or reflections on the relationship between non-human nature and the human.
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Using new archival material, the study explores Frank Wollman’s plays staged by the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava in the 1920s. Recognised as a Czech expert in Slavonic studies, he lectured at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. In the early years of his professional career, he presented himself as a “manifestly Czechoslovak” dramatist, whose drama Bohokrál (1921) [The Godking] published in book form portrayed Alexander the Great. The ideas of Czech and Slovak togetherness were conveyed through the Great Moravia theme in his historical tragedy Rastislav (1922). His Člun na moři (1924) [A Boat at Sea], a “human grotesque and political utopia” juxtaposing opposing human types, got a particularly keen public response. Overall, Wollman’s dramas reflected on major social conflicts, and by putting emphasis on moral ethos, they were intellectual in nature. They linked expressionist elements with the tradition of classical realistic drama. Even though the plays were not included in the basic repertory of the Slovak National Theatre when first staged, they have remained a witness of the author’s artistic formation as well as of the dramaturgy of SND.
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The Czech director Vladimír Morávek has staged two remarkable theatre productions in Slovakia. Both were staged on the verge of the millennia and were inspired by the world theatre classics. In 1999, Morávek staged Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nitra, and in 2005, he directed Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand on the stage of the Drama Company of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. The production of Macbeth in Nitra was the most successful and most frequently awarded production of the 1998/1999 theatre season. Both national and international theatre critics were particularly generous in their reviews. The production of Cyrano de Bergerac in Bratislava was among the repertory titles most popular with the audiences. However, reviewers were more reserved in their opinions. Both the productions had several things in common, namely, they both strived to interpret the well-known drama text in a novel way, while putting emphasis on actors’ performance, visuality and musicality. Morávek’s directions of Macbeth and Cyrano have enriched the relations between the Czech and the Slovak theatre scenes with a new experience and have become a significant part of the art biographies of several theatre professionals.
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Review of: Štefan Timko - PREDMERSKÝ, Vladimír a kolektív: Dejiny slovenskej dramatiky bábkového divadla. Bratislava : Divadelný ústav, 2020. 854 s. ISBN 978-80-8190-061-7.
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The study deals with the dramatic works of a writer, professor of the Evangelical Lyceum of the Augsburg Confession in Pressburg, Tobias Gottfried Schröer. As a citizen of German descent striving to avoid the harsh censorship of the time, between 1820 and 1849, he published his works under various pseudonyms. Under his real name, he published only textbooks and three compendia intended for the Lyceum students. In Germany (Leipzig, Hamburg, etc.), he was quite a well-known writer; his short stories, poems and plays were published in various almanacs and collections. His drama work is almost unknown, and the number of his plays (existing as primary sources, including those that are only referred to), we estimate at fifteen so far. They were written approximately between the years 1806 and 1846, which testifies to their author’s lifelong interest in theatre and story dramatizations. A historical drama Leben und Thaten Emerich Tokoly’s und seiner Streitgenossen [The Life and Deeds of Emerich Tököly and His Comrades-in-arms by A. Z.] (1839), published in Leipzig under the pseudonym of A. Z., and a comedy Der Bär [The Bear] (1830) can be considered the most important.
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In the history of the dramatic arts, it is a frequent phenomenon that characters of one sex are played by actors of the opposite sex. This phenomenon is found in cultures all over the world, with its roots probably lying in the spiritual practices of ancient cultures. The term drag, based on Polari language, is currently used to name this practice. In the light of the theories associated with rituals, the mask, and the concept of liminality, it can be stated that a person who is in drag is entering a liminal phase between the masculine and feminine worlds. This state allows the person to free himself/herself from gender stereotypes that limit the freedom and authenticity of personal expression. The intention of this paper is to present the historical development of drag and its function in human society and in the dramatic arts environment. The issue of drag in the dramatic arts has been mostly marginalised in scientific literature. The occasional works that have dealt with it have mostly not traced the distinct nature of individual manifestations, but have examined drag as an internally homogeneous phenomenon. Our work presents an internal classification of drag in the dramatic arts, with an ambition of better understanding the individual manifestations of drag, tracing their historical development and their socio-artistic function.
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The presented paper explores the almost forgotten and little-reflected translation activity of actress Mária Bancíková (1913 – 1962). Bancíková was among the acclaimed personalities of the so-called inter-generation of actors, embarking on their careers in the 1930s, which was characterised by its inclination towards psychological-realistic acting and also by its accurate work with the Slovak language as a language of the stage. Bancíková was able to make the most of her talent and her feeling for languages not only as an actress, but also as an occasional translator from Hungarian, Russian, and especially Czech. The paper deals with the selected translations of Czech drama that she created for the drama ensemble of the New Stage Theatre of the Slovak National Theatre in a socially complex period at the turn of the 1940s and the 1950s. It focuses on the critical response to Bancíková’s translations, and especially on her ingenious approach and contribution, using the examples of the specific fairy-tale-romantic language of Josef Kajetán Tyl’s Strakonický gajdoš [The Strakonice Bagpiper] or the dialect of Alois Jirásek’s Vojnarka.
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Tomáš Berka graduated from Department of scenography at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under the professor Ladislav Vychodil in 1974, lived a parallel life as a visual artist and rocker, author of incidental and later also film music, as well as co-creator of music albums with the group called Fermata for decades. He was tempted away from the theatre by the illusion of film and the collaboration with international production teams and established film directors when creating large-scale films and constructing film sets. As a representative of action scenography, he had the opportunity to work with various directors on many, but predominantly on the Bratislava stages during the 1970-80s. He did not use the curtain or horizon on small stages; he worked with acronyms, movement of parts of the set and stage props, as well as metaphor. Tomáš Berka connected the auditorium with the stage on several occasions. He made a distinctive mark in graphic design; his theatre posters are typical for their characteristic outlines and colouring (regardless of the linocut or offset technique). Based on selected productions from a total of over a hundred works, the study presents Berka’s contribution to Slovak scenography from the 1970s to 2005, when his last theatre work was recorded. Tomáš Berka (together with Jozef Ciller, who is older than him and his classmates Ján Zavarský and Rasťo Bohuš) is one of the leading representatives of Slovak scenography that fundamentally influenced the direction of Slovak theatre development. Tomáš Berka is the only one among the stage designers who have also penetrated the world of music and, in recent decades, the international film industry. The study of his scenography completes the portrait of the stage designer’s work in Bratislava companies as it was unjustly marginalised also by foreign critics. While at the same time, several productions that he was engaged in which made an impact by their use of action scenography were produced in confined spaces of the petit stage of the former Divadlo na korze (Theatre on the Promenade), as well as in alternative non-theatre spaces. Tomáš Berka’s production of posters reflects the artist’s vision of society from the beginning of Normalisation, i.e. from the 1970s to the search for a path towards democracy in the first half of the 1990s.
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The term “audience development” is entangled with a number of definitions that differ in their meaning. While working with the audiences was considered to be primarily a marketing tool to ensure an increase in the number of spectators and lead to the economic stability of cultural institutions, in several European countries and, particularly, at the level of the cultural policies of European institutions, the perspectives of working with the audiences gradually developed into a more inclusive approach and people began to talk about access to culture for all. In this study, the author zooms in on a number of definitions of audience development formulated by theoreticians and culture managers prevailingly in English-speaking countries (Steven Hadley, Nobuko Kawashima) and national and European cultural policy makers. Based on the identification of several aspects of audience development, she also ponders whether discussions about audience development are taking place in Slovakia just like in other European countries, what direction the issues of audience development follow in the field of theatre culture in Slovakia, and who is their initiator.
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The boom of electronic media, which increased the availability of information, the speed of its distribution, and the options of its selection in an unprecedented way, is reflected in a fundamental way also in the genre preferences of the percipients. What is in demand are also, or especially, topical, short, apt pieces of communication, which are concentrated, and which bring a quick punchline. New dramatic genres that respond to these trends include the stand-up comedy concept, which spread in Slovakia in the early twenty-first century. This study sheds light on the contentual and formal structure of pieces of communication of the stand-up comedy type against a background of analyses of seventy Slovak stand-up performances. It defines the term itself, specifies the determining features of this new genre, which has not been complexly defined in Slovakia yet, and focuses on the characteristics of the forms of the comedy used, the thematic starting points of the stand-ups, and their genesis and development (abroad, too, but mainly in Slovakia). It places special emphasis on the analysis of its dominant stylistic and intonation features.
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This paper contains following book review: The Wonders of the West End SIERZ, Aleks: Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre Since the Second World War. Methuen Drama, 2021. 240 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1350200913.
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Cílem studie je reflektovat současnou pozici české divadelní historiografie v kontextu kulturního obratu v humanitních vědách a klást si následující otázky: Čím pohyb v zahraniční divadelní historiografii může inspirovat při koncipování nových historiografických výkladů? Jaké metody využívat při zkoumání historických jevů? Do kterých tematických a teritoriálních rámců vplétat historická pojednání? Jak reflektovat dynamiku historické paměti, kulturu vzpomínání či cíleného zapomínání? A pomohla by změna slovníku? Studie naznačuje inherentní střetávání mezi periferním postavením teatrologa hájícího autonomii a svébytnost oboru, průběžně stimulovaného vnějšími podněty, a badatele přirozeně se orientujícího v interdisciplinárním prostředí, který divadelní kulturu chápe především v relaci společenského dění.
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