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1 Performance Beyond Borders in Twenty-First Century Prague: Topography of a New Theatre-Making Context Rebecca Mcfadden Goldsmi

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1 Performance Beyond Borders in Twenty-First Century Prague: Topography of a New Theatre-Making Context Rebecca Mcfadden Goldsmi Performance Beyond Borders in Twenty-first Century Prague: Topography of a New Theatre-Making Context Rebecca McFadden Goldsmiths, University of London PhD Theatre and Performance 1 I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Rebecca McFadden 2 Abstract Within the framework of the sociology of theatre, this thesis explores the current performance-making landscape of Prague, mapping the emergence of the nové divadlo (new theatre) movement since 2000. An examination of the historical development of Czech theatre foregrounds the discussion of contemporary practice, charting its changing social-political role in domestic and international contexts. Theatre’s significance in forging an ethnolinguistically defined national consciousness is considered as a legacy that continues to impact the field. Theatrical values originating in the nineteenth-century national revival are traced through the interwar avant-garde, dissident small theatre movement of the 1960s and auteur’s theatre of the 1970s and 1980s. The Velvet Revolution of 1989 and theatre artists’ contributions to the defeat of communism are considered as catalysing a period of self-reflexivity, as theatres grappled with new logistical infrastructures and faced a crisis of purpose both dramaturgical and social in scope. These changes are framed by discussion of the divergent visions of the country’s future posited by Václav Havel and Václav Klaus throughout the 1990s, as well as tensions surrounding European Union ascension and other globalizing processes. A close examination of the nové divadlo infrastructure that has arisen in the past twenty years identifies the strategies by which this faction of the field has forged a third theatre- making space, distinct from either the repertory system or the pre-revolution avant-garde. Central to this discussion is a consideration of the nové divadlo’s companies, venues and festivals as both reactive and active: responding to an increasingly international city and, simultaneously, actively positioning Czech theatre on world stages. The work and critical reception of Farma v jeskyni (Farm in the Cave) and Krepsko, both self-defining as “international” by virtue of their composition and international touring presence, are 3 considered with regard to the companies’ dramaturgy, methodology and social function. Finally, the thesis considers how the work of the new theatre movement and, specifically, Farma v jeskyni, constitutes a “practical politics” rooted in the political philosophy of Havel and Jan Patočka. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7 Introduction 9 1. Society, Politics and Performance: The Role of 22 Theatre in the Emergence of Czech National Consciousness, 1620-1945 1.1. Framing the National Revival 22 1.2. Origins of the National Revival 28 1.3. Evolution of the National Revival 38 1.4. Diverging Cultural Trends in the Aftermath of 1848 47 1.5. Theatrical, Political and Cultural Developments of the First 56 Republic, 1918-1938 1.6. Conclusions and Common Themes 71 2. A Socio-cultural History of Czech Theatre Under 74 Communism, 1945-1989 2.1. Kulturnost in Action: Post-war Theatrical Continuity 78 and Evolution 2.2. Únor/February: The Communist Coup D’état of 1948 81 2.3. Transforming Theatre and Society: Social and Cultural 83 Restructuring, 1948-1956 2.4. Political Liberalization and Theatrical Reinvigoration, 92 1956-1967 2.5. From the Prague Spring to Normalization, 1968-1972 114 2.6. The Social and Cultural Policies of Normalization 118 2.7. Living in Truth: The Autorské Divadlo of the 1970s and 1980s 128 2.8. The Velvet Revolution of November 1989 139 3. The Czech Theatre Landscape in Flux: Post-communist 150 Transformation, Continuity and Rupture 3.1. Appropriating Kulturnost: Post-Communist Political and 152 Economic Narratives 3.2. The Culture Sector’s “Terra Incognita”: Czech Theatre 161 in the 1990s 3.3. Cultural Policy in the Post-Communist Era 168 3.4. New Paradigms: The Prague Experiment 173 3.5. Defining Political Theatre for a New Millennium 177 3.6. Import and Export: Culture as Foreign Policy 185 5 4. Něco nového/Something New: Czech Nové Divadlo, 2000-2012 193 4.1. Spaces and Festivals in Flux, 1989-2001 194 4.2. Out of the Ark and onto the World Stage 196 4.2.1. Divadlo Archa 196 4.2.2. Ctibor Turba and Alfred ve dvoře 199 4.2.3. Czech Contemporary Dance and the Nové 206 Divadlo Scene 4.3. New Stages for a New Millennium 210 4.4. Accusations of Amateurism: Nové Divadlo Meets the Press 213 4.5. Something Czech, or not Czech: Krepsko 225 5. Immigrants in Prague: Farma v jeskyni/Farm in the Cave 238 5.1. Origins 238 5.2. The Productions 258 5.2.1. Sclavi / Emigrantova píseň (Sclavi / The Song of an 259 Emigrant) 5.2.2. Čekárna (Waiting Room) 271 5.2.3. Divadlo (The Theatre) 277 5.3. Critical Reception 288 5.4. Politics and Praxis: Farma as “Practical Political Opinion” 300 5.5. A Kind of Home 306 Conclusion 311 Appendix A: List of Acronyms 317 Bibliography 319 6 Acknowledgments This research benefited from the support of many friends and colleagues in the United States, United Kingdom and Czech Republic. I thank my supervisor, Professor Maria Shevtsova for her consistent belief in this project and tireless guidance throughout the entire process, as well as my colleagues in the Sociology of Theatre and Performance Research Group. I am grateful to the generosity of Czech academics, including Dr. Martina Musilová and Dr. Alexander Komlosi, who expressed interest in my research and pointed me in fruitful directions. Dr. Jana Pilátová welcomed my questions with great generosity and provided enormous insight into the work of Farma v jeskyni and laboratory theatre in the Czech Republic. Krystyna Mogilnicka introduced me to Viliam Dočolomanský, helped me gain access to closed company workshops and shared her own research on the creation of Divadlo (The Theatre) with me. I am indebted to the artists from Alfred ve dvoře, Farma v jeskyni, Krepsko and Veselé skoky who spoke with me about their work and welcomed me into their workshops and rehearsals. My Czech teachers Zdena Svěráková (London) and Jana Harperová (Prague), equipped me to face the linguistic demands of this research. A host of Czech friends in London and the Czech Republic provided conversation practice, second eyes on translations and accommodation: many thanks to Eva Daníčková, Tereza Havlíčková and family, Jiří Martykan, Eliška Strnadová and the Huptych family. Further thanks are due to the Eastern European Studies programme of the American Council of Learned Societies, which funded my study at Charles University with a Summer Language Study Fellowship. Peter Zusi and the Czech literature reading group at the School of Slavonic and East 7 European Studies, University College London welcomed me, further developed my language skills and deepened my understanding of the field of Czech studies. The roots of this research lie in my first encounter with Czech theatre culture as a performer at the 2005 and 2007 Prague Fringe Festivals. These journeys were supported by grants from the Theatre Department and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at my alma mater, Villanova University, and I am appreciative of the Theatre faculty’s on-going support of my work. Special thanks are due to Professor Harriet Power, whose faith in me as an artist and scholar has sustained me through the most challenging aspects of this work. I am indebted to the colleagues and friends who read and responded to my work: Eva Daníčková, Shawn Kairschner and Lara Parmiani. Finally, I extend my love and personal thanks to my mother, Ann McFadden, for her unwavering support of this project, as well as to my partner Paul Wade and my friend and colleague Scheherazaad Cooper, who have provided invaluable assistance, camaraderie and perspective throughout this process. This work is dedicated to the memory of my father, John R. McFadden. 8 Introduction This thesis explores the emergence of Prague’s nové divadlo (new theatre) movement and the work of Prague-based companies Farma v jeskyni (Farm in the Cave) and Krepsko within the framework of the sociology of theatre. Each company has been founded since 2001, over a decade removed from 1989’s Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in the Czech lands. Each company’s work is international in a way that would have been impossible prior to 1989, either through the multiple nationalities of its founders, the composition of its company and/or its international touring presence, and each produces a variant of non-verbal, bi- or multilingual performances accessible to international and increasingly diverse domestic audiences.1 While productions affiliated with the nové divadlo are by no means artistically uniform, it is possible to identify reoccurring trends. These include an emphasis on the physical expressiveness of the body and a theatrical language in which the role of text is de-emphasized in the construction of narrative, which, if present, is most often subject to multiple interpretations. As such, the work bears much in common with practices Hans-Thies Lehmann describes as postdramatic, referring to “a theatre that feels bound to operate beyond drama, at a time ‘after’ the authority of the dramatic paradigm in theatre” (2006: 27). While this thesis examines the work in a predominantly Czech context, it must also be noted that the nové divadlo’s companies and practitioners do not emerge sui generis, but reflect the influence of evolving international theatre practice throughout the twentieth century. Their work is often described as “physical theatre”, a term, which, as Ana Sánchez-Colberg notes, “denotes a hybrid 1 Increasingly, given trends in re-diversification in the Czech Republic since 1989, an international and/or multi-lingual audience is to be found domestically, particularly within the capital city of Prague, which recorded a resident-foreigner population of 148,578 in 2010 (Czech Statistical Office, “Foreigners by region, district and type of residence permit – 28 February 2010”).
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