Czech Theatre from the National Revival to the Present Day

Abstract

Our knowledge (or pervasive ignorance) of theatre in Czechoslovakia is. sadly, still shaped in part by its being perceived as a faraway country of which we know little – almost as little as when Chamberlain thus identified it at the time of Munich. But there is also the fact that its theatre has been distinguished less by the work of individual dramatists than through collective creation, through ‘small forms’ such as cabaret, and through scenography and other aspects of technical innovation. While fully analyzing such features of Czech theatre, Barbara Day relates them to the political and social conditions of a country in which various forms of repression and censorship have made it difficult for the all-too-identifiable dramatist to become spokesperson for a national theatre. Having herself lived in Czechoslovakia for several periods between 1965 and 1969, Barbara Day returned to the study of Czech theatre in 1980, when she read for a research degree at Bristol University, also collaborating with the University's drama department in staging a Czechoslovak Festival in Bristol during October 1985.