MASARYK UNIVERSITY THE FACULTY OF ARTS Theory and History of Theatre Student: Emir Zec VÁCLAV HAVEL‟S PLAYS STAGED IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Master‟s Thesis Mentor: M.A. David Drozd, Ph.D. 2011 1 | P a g e I declare that I prepared Master Thesis work independently, using listed resources and literature. ..…………………………..………………… Signature of author 2 | P a g e Acknowledgments I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to: M.A. David Drozd, Ph.D. for guidance, valuable advice, comments and selfless patience, Amir Zec, Adila Zec, Suad and Ina Smajić, Kadira and Horst Hannibal, Fuad Smajić, Muharem-Hari Zahirović, Dušan, Snjeţana and Diana Miĉeviĉ and to Selma Đonlagić, Alma Tanović, Renata Tomić and Sanja Berberović for assisting me with English language. 3 | P a g e Contents: 1. Introduction 6 1.1. Briefly on Havel’s plays in former Yugoslavia 6 1.2. The structure of the paper 10 1.3. Havel’s life, work and political connotations 11 1.4. Reception of Václav Havel 15 2. Czech Authors on South Slavic Territories 20 3. Audience, the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, 28th December 1981 29 3.1. Brief History of the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica 29 3.2. Historical Background and the Political Situation in Yugoslavia in 1980 30 3.3. The Context behind Certain Motifs in the Text 32 3.4. Audience in the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica 34 3.5. Conclusion 37 4. Largo Desolato, the Chamber Theatre 55 Sarajevo, 20th February 1987 39 4.1. Brief History of the Chamber Theatre 55 39 4.2. The Context behind Certain Motifs in the Text 41 4.3. Largo Desolato in the Chamber Theatre 55 46 4.4. Conclusion 50 5. Unveiling, the National Theatre Tuzla, 5th March 1991 52 5.1. Brief History of the National Theatre Tuzla 52 5.2. Historical Background and the Political Situation in Yugoslavia in 1991 55 5.3. A word about the Director 55 5.4. The Context behind Certain Motifs in the Text 56 5.5. Unveiling in the National Theatre Tuzla 57 5.6. Conclusion 61 6. Audience and Unveiling, the Chamber Theatre 55 Sarajevo, 25th September 1995 63 6.1. Historical Background and the Political Situation in Post War Bosnia and Herzegovina 63 6.2. Audience and Unveiling in the Chamber Theatre 55 63 4 | P a g e 6.3. The Context behind Certain Motifs in the Text 65 6.4. Conclusion 69 7. Translations 71 8. Conclusion 77 8.1. Few remarks on John Keane’s book A Political Tragedy in Six Acts 77 8.2. Václav Havel’s Contributions 80 8.3. Václav Havel in Bosnia and Herzegovina 83 9. Biography of Václav Havel 86 10. Annex 91 10.1. Audience, the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, 28th December 1981 93 10.2. Largo Desolato, the Chamber Theatre 55 Sarajevo, 20th February 1987 105 10.3. Unveiling, the National Theatre Tuzla, 5th March 1991 112 10.4. Audience and Unveiling, the Chamber Theatre 55 Sarajevo, 25th September 1995 117 11. References 121 5 | P a g e 1. Introduction Although plays by many other Czech writers were performed on the stages of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian theatres, Václav Havel was and remains the most imposing, stage- managed representative of the Czech drama creations in Bosnian and Herzegovinian. The reasons are numerous, but most of them are linked to a complicated political situation in both countries. Whereas Havel virtually had no rights in his home country in the 1970s and 1980s - totally prohibited and without any publication or staged drama, the Yugoslavian theatres were eager to stage his plays in various theatres. The situation of Bosnian and Herzegovinian theatres, compared to other former Yugoslav scenes, was not particularly developed, nor was it rich in performance of Havel’s plays, but there is a sufficient number of staging to be analysed with regards to different areas and various contexts in which Havel’s plays have been set and performed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It would be quite tempting to analyse Havel’s works through the diversity of repertoire in different theatres, through decades in various historical, political and social contexts. As matter a fact, all of Havel’s texts that were performed in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been added to the repertoire after being successful staged in Serbia or Croatia. Not only were the reasons mainly financial, because they mostly received the texts without payment for the translation, but they also resulted from the Bosnian and Herzegovinian poor theatre tradition and weaker cultural contacts with other countries, especially with the Czech Republic. Briefly on Havel’s plays in former Yugoslavia: The first theatre to perform Havel’s play in former Yugoslavia was Atelje 212 from Belgrade, Serbia, a theatre very much like first Havel’s theatre, Theatre on the Balustrade in Prague.1 1 The Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo Na zábradlí) is situated in Prague, Czech Republic. The theatre was founded in 1958. Its founders were Helena Philipová, Ivan Vyskočil, Jiří Suchý and Vladimír Vodička named their professional theatre after a street leading from the square to the river. Its first production, a musical collage titled If a Thousand Clarinets (Kdyby tisíc klarinetů), was premiered on 9th December 1958. Three months later Ladislav Fialka and his mime group joined the company with their production Pantomime on the Balustrade, and brought back fame to the almost forgotten theatre genre. Drama and mime companies coexisted at the theatre till Fialka’s death in 1991. In the early 1960s, with the arrival of director Jan Grossman, set designer 6 | P a g e In 1965 Ljubomir Draškić set Havel’s The Garden Party (Zahradní slavnost), the same director presented Havel’s one-act plays Unveiling 2 and Audience to Belgrade audience in 1981, as well as feature-length play The Beggar's Opera in 1985. More details about these and other plays will be mentioned in the chapter Czech Authors on South Slavic Territories. Audience and Unveiling are considered to be the most performed Havel’s texts, mainly by the acting academies, because of the benefits of the simple stage scenery, a small number of characters, the one-act play planned for a small scene and, of course, the quality of the text. Havel was first shown on the Bosnian and Herzegovinian stage with his play Audience, in season 1981/82. (One year after the Croatian premiere at the Gavella Theatre in Zagreb.) First staging was performed by the Bosnian National Theatre in Zenica, which, up to the nineties, was known as riotous theatre, in the first performances of new texts with delicate (questionable) issues. In Zenica, the environment known for its working class population, the most important industrial facility in the city was Steel factory built primarily under political decisions of the communist regime and not because of natural resources, or some industrial strategy, so Zenica population have always been feeling like they were being punished and they were trying to find a different way for better life by denouncing communism and decision-making structure in such a society, therefore Audience finds its right place on the repertoire of this theatre. The second most often performed Havel’s play in Bosnia and Herzegovina was Largo Desolato. First Bosnian Largo Desolato was directed by Egon Savin and was performed in the Chamber Theatre 55 in Sarajevo, in season 1987/88. It is worth mentioning that this was, at the same time, the first and the last of Havel’s performance that was executed before other Yugoslav staging.3 Libor Fára and a stage hand and later dramaturg and playwright Václav Havel, the Theatre on the Balustrade became the centre of the Czech form of the absurd theatre (V. Havel: The Garden Party, Memorandum, Alfred Jarry: King Ubu, Franz Kafka: Process). Despite the fact that the theatre established itself abroad (or maybe because of it) as well as in Czechoslovakia, Jan Grossman and Václav Havel were forced to leave the theatre in 1968. In the 1970s and 1980s the theatre became a refuge for film directors of the 1960s “new wave”, whose film work was thwarted by the normalisation process. 2 Official English translation of Havel’s title Vernisáž has two versions: Private View or Unveiling. In my work I have decided to use Unveiling. 3 In Croatia, immediately after the Sarajevo premiere, Largo Desolato was set as well in the Drama Theatre Gavella, in season 1988. It is interesting that these sets each had a different translation. The Croatian name of the play was Desperately Funny, which is not adequate, nor to the original name of play, nor to the essence of 7 | P a g e From its foundation to the present day The Chamber Theatre 55 has kept riotous and experimental characters and has regularly staged more experimental texts compared to other Bosnian and especially Sarajevo theatres. A performance caused diverse, tumultuous reactions. It was the time before the collapse of the Tito’s Yugoslavia, the freedom of speech and the national parties have largely begun to pull out on each side, so that the fate of Leopold Nettles4 would concern most prominent intellectuals, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the entire former Yugoslavia. Zijah Sokolović, an actor, made very impressionable role playing the main character mentioned above, and his overall acting work in later years could be linked with the life of Václav Havel. It is a strange coincidence that Václav Havel started his theatre career as a military conscript. Besides his regular duties in the army he was involved in the theatre as a stagehand general, actor and writer.