CZECH REALISTIC DRAMA IN THE POSTMODERN JUNGLE MgA. Vít Pokorný Translated by Ivan Kolman To write a thesis about postmodernism is like going into a jungle full of predators. With exhaustive efforts one can make a list of dozens of philosophers and art theoreticians who expressed their opinions about postmodernism one way or the other. However, we can rarely find they agree with each other. The word „postmodern“ was first used by the English painter John Watkins Chapman (1832–1903) in about 1870. He wanted to characterize a new period in the development of painting following the period of impressionism. Between 1918 and 1939 „postmodernism“ can be found in a number of reflections of various thinkers (Pannwitz, Toynbee) on the horrors of the First World War with the absurdity of trenches and the inhumanity of nerve gases. The regular appearance of postmodernism in the period of glory of modernist and avant-garde art can lead us towards the hypothesis that postmodernism is not what follows after modernism but it forms an intergral part of it. Or rather it is a value antipode when modernism believes in social-economic progress and the ability of art to interfere in this development while postmodernism as a crack in the wall of structuralism and formalism expresses the crisis of quality jumps, verbalizes the feeling of weariness in history, life and art perceived as educators of human soul. The most famous era of postmodernism came together with the holocaust, the revelation of Communist crimes and the world-wide disillusion with the unfulfilled ideas of revolutionary change in the world of the 1960s. The classic writer in French philosophy of the period Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924–1998) called the diffluence of the ideal of positive transformation of society the end of great constituting stories: „The narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. It is being dispersed in clouds of narrative language elements—narrative, but also denotative, prescriptive, descriptive, and so on. Conveyed within each cloud are pragmatic valencies specific to its kind. Each of us lives at the intersection of many of these.“1 Postmodernism tears to pieces the idea that it is possible to find unambigous sense, order and hope in the chaos of everyday perceptions and structuralistically-arranged work created by civilization and art connected with it by an umbilical cord. The battle field of the value discourse is dominated by Derrida´s deconstruction, Lyotard´s „language games“ and Foucault´s (1926– 1984) rebellious challenge not to stick to one (one-dimensional, as Herbert Marcus puts it) form of existence, since every civilization is a purely social construct kept alive by supervision and punishment: 1

Lyotard, Jean- Francois: O postmodernismu:postmoderno vysvětlované dětem:postmoderní situace. Překlad Jiří Pechar. 1. vyd. Praha: Filosofia, str. 98. (English quotation is taken from the translation by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)

„I don´t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for a love relationship is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don´t know what will be the end.“2 Covered with the fig leaf of basic knowledge of the term postmodernism, we can go to the epicentre of the jungle to the central theme of my thesis, i.e. Czech postmodern theatre. The field of interest is enclosed by the years 1990– 2010 and the productions of Czech realistic drama. It would be wrong to assume that postmodernism crossed the borders of Czechoslovakia (later the Czech Republic) only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The roots of rotten certainties can be traced to the 1960s in a grotesque deconstruction of man´s greatness and of the magnificence of history, as was shown by the Czechoslovak film new wave and the productions of the Drama Club (Činoherní klub) and the Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo na zábradlí). The August occupation by the armies of the Warsaw Pact in 1968 confirmed these allusions (even for Lyotard the violent interruption of the so-called Prague Spring is one of the symbols of the end of great strories). The following period of normalization under Husák was characterized by the suppression of metaphysical religious, humanist and ecological ideals, by a ridiculous pretence of the happy present personified by consumerism and a horrifying pop culture. All that nurtured the postmodern state of the decay of unambiguity and it led sensitive and aesthetically-oriented individuals who grew up in this period towards artistic reflection. I am speaking here about normalization but what else were Reagan´s era of market liberalization and Baroness Thatcher´s transformation experiments than analogies to Husák´s peace for work? The postmodernism in the bipolar world was growing from the common base of craving for selfish profit and addictive dependence on sweet music and TV series. The 1980s brought the first confessions of the children of the period to Czech stages, especially in amateur theatres that were a little freer as far as the censures´ severe supervision is concerned. Theatre ensembles such as the Prague Five (Pražská pětka), Vizita Theatre and primarily Lébl´s DOPRAPO (or Jak se vám jelo, and later Jelo) have brought the basic postmodern question: „What can man and art bring which is positive to a period in which the truth is relativized by either political totalitarianism or by a government of media entertainment?“ to the theatre discourse.3 In a society in which the development 2

Marcelli, Miroslav: Michel Foucault alebo Stať se iným. Quotation from: Foucault M.: Truth, Power, Self: An Interview with Michel Foucault, in Technologies of the Self, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988). Bratislava: Kalligram, 2005. ISBN: 80-7149-723-1 str. 20

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E.g. productions „TV 20:10 – Právě teď“ (Baletní jednotka Křeč), „Chemikál“ (Divadlo Sklep), „Srslení aneb Jeden den Vilemína Čmelíka“ (Divadlo Vizita), „Groteska“ (DOPRAPO)

of technologies leads to the loss of human imagination, the decay of social bonds and the unbearable lightness of being. The pioneering productions of the mentioned ensembles already show the various ways of dealing with post-structuralist possibilities of the production as communication of communications about communication. I now come to the German philosopher Wolfgang Welsch (1946), who deals with the problem of postmodernism and its aesthetic and thinking codes in great detail. His doubts, objections and solutions managed to name what was possible to observe in the theatres of communist Czechoslovakia in the mid-1980s and continued in the following decade, which is of central interest to my thesis. Welsch divides postmodernism into two types: diffuse and precise postmodernism. The creed of diffuse postmodernism seems to say that everything which does not keep up with the standards of rationality, or that reproduces known things, possibly in a distorted way, must be mixed in a cocktail with abundant exotic ingredients (...) It does not provide any analysis, concepts, notions – neither of the opponents who claim that there are none, nor of its own, that are considered so obvious and generally accepted that they do not have to be explained but only suggested, to be discussed but only assumed as dogmas. (…) Precise postmodernism (…) intensifies diversity by escalation instead of levelling it with chaos. Instead of blunting the differences in a free swirl, it enforces their discrepancy. (…) It carefully pursues the difference between good, doubtful and catastrophic. It does not promote arbitrariness, but it has a feeling for the specific and designates general liabilities, it is not a defender of disorientation, but a supporter of precise rules.4 Welsch discoveres the tendency of postmodern culture to colaborate with the symptoms of modernist decay – such as pop culture and the loss of authority of the spirit – to such a degree that it merges with it and the former critic becomes an apologist. In my opinion, the post-revolutionary years, when many members of the Prague Five successfuly entered the field of commercials and entertainment industry, just confirmed this assumption, although Jan Císař, a distinguished Czech theatrologist, sees a subconscious act of postmodern resignation in this quasi-aesthetic prostitution, which does not praise anything, it only states. „They wanted to be different from both the official art and the underground, but also from the „moralization“ of the generation of people in their forties. (…) They do not reproach their fathers and predecessors – they take the situation as it is, they live in it and they want to reflect it in a matter-of-fact way.“5

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Welsch, Wolfgang: Naše postmoderní moderna. Praha: Zvon, 1994. ISBN: 80-7113-104-0 pp. 10 – 11. (translated from Czech) 5

Císař, Jan: Amatérské činoherní a alternativní divadlo. In: Císař, Jan a kol.: Cesty českého amatérského divadla. Vývojové tendence. Praha: IPOS – Informační a poradenské středisko pro místní kulturu, 1998. ISBN: 80-7068-129-2, p. 316.

To confuse postmodernism with pure arbitrariness and mixture of genres, styles and parodies is a simplification of theoretical work (in Welschian terms it could be defined as diffuse postmodern theorizing). Definite condemnation or simple-minded eagerness for theatre postmodernism hide – as if behind a screen – what is essential, which has been brought about by this philosophical-artistic ferment. As I have already mentioned, postmodernism is a solid part of modernist idealism - its critical insinuator. Modern philosophy (especially Martin Heidegger and the existencialists) places man at the forefront as being thrown into life and forced to create somehow the sense and contents of the life. Every second is a question for deciding what can never be changed. Modernism is trying to find the best possible essence for existence in the test tube of ideologies and artistic trends. However, a postmodernist insinuator becomes aware that this essence cannot be found in the laboratory but in a frighteningly open universe of one´s own experience. Experience is important for the critic of diffuse postmodernism because if we experience something we should also reflect it and put it in context. Thus postmodern radical pluralism is not a way towards unanchored use but towards unanchored experiencing. Postmodern plurality goes hand in hand not only with the greatest freedom but it also makes us see more sharply the weight of problems – gaining new sensibility for problems. (…) Postmodernism has a substantialy ethical base.6 Wolfgang Welsch comes with the term „transversal reason“, which makes postmodernism radically critical (i.e. not equalizing, as is sometimes claimed) way of thinking. „The concept of transversal reason lies between modernism and postmodernism. On one hand it turns against the totalitarian aporias of modern style. (…) On the other hand it adjusts the dogma of absolute diversity of rigid postmodernism and takes into consideration the interest in connecting which is characteristic for positions connected with modern style without sinking into the tendency to reduction and equalization of differences. (…) It enables communication without ordering hegemony, and exposes differences without pulling down bridges.“7 Important postmodern directors, e.g. Petr Lébl, Vladimír Morávek, Jiří Pokorný and J. A. Pitínský turned to the Czech drama classicsof the 2nd half of the 19th century when they were selecting texts for the production on stage. Following European development, these works brought the poetics of realism to Czech stages which escalated into the form of naturalism by the end of the century. Writers such as Ladislav Stroupežnický, Gabriela Preissová, Alois Jirásek and the Mrštík brothers wanted to catch, as if reflected in the mirror, the impact

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Welsch, Wolfgang: Naše postmoderní moderna. Praha: Zvon, 1994. ISBN: 80-7113-104-0, p. 165 Ibid, p. 155

of the rapid development of industrial society, which brought about the decay of old traditions and social bonds. Although realism and naturalism want to act systematically as neutral observers of reality, creative contribution always evaluates this observation in one way or the other. The point on the author intervening under the banner of realism is to impress readers or spectators and to make them react critically. The fable and storyline are intentionally built to make an impression on those who accept the artist´s work. Thus Maryša looks like a faithful copy of the Moravian region of Slovácko, but one can identify the Mrštíks´ heavy-handed efforts to remind the audience with that craving for freedom in the clash with tradition and materialism results in catastrophe. The same can be said about Preissová who resolves the options of emancipation of women in a world of unsurmountable barriers between the sexes. The ideological roots of realistic dramas were fanatically seized by the Communist arts task force which added the formal layer of celebrations of the Czech countryside and common Czech people with their earthy life philosophy to the realistic criticism of features of decadent capitalism (as if the vain longing for freedom was not present even in real socialism). The critical thorn of realism became a formula with a predetermined result. Rare and in a way miraculous productions of the period, e.g. Grossman´s Maryša in Hradec Králové and Macháček´s Naši furianti (Our Swaggerers) in the National Theatre in Prague led the audience to critical thinking. A simple question without a simple answer is what drew postmodern directors to realistic drama so much that they returned to it so often. During this dramaturgical-ideological research of the field we can assume that the unsightly tradition of Communist productions about a Czech man and beautiful wide, vast fields was the most apparent target which postmodernists could use to show how phantasmagorical the faith in the power of nation is and its qualities albeit spoilt by the materialistic hunt for possessions. We can go a little further and see the overall deconstruction of the artificially-made revivalist vision of Czech national feelings in these postmodern productions. Although it is ironically true that realistic drama authors themselves dissociated from this vision. In the second half of the 20th century, the research of literary scholars, primarily that of Vladimír Macura (1945–1999), revealed with argumentative precision that the modern Czech nation was created as an artificial project of several enthusiasts who actually communicated among themselves in German for a long time. Patriotism and national mythology are a sophisticated language game, a structural concept hiding an ironic lie in itself. Real possibilities of the creation of Czech culture as a special, nonGerman culture, seem to be very questionable. The communication circle of the Czech language was considerably limited, while German was the language of culture. (…) Constant duplicity of the real and pretended was caused by external circumstances, i.e. by the fact that cultural creations were actually thrown into empty space, they did not enter the culture but created it around themselves as a fiction. (…) Mystification

was becoming a fully-fledged part in the act of creating the national culture as a whole.8 Postmodern productions of realistic plays transformed this literary-scientific summary into an artistic form. Specifically the Czech illusion of national greatness arising from revivalist mystification interconnects with the common postmodern attack against great stories and great truths, which try to nestle in the bosom of civilisation as physical laws. As has been mentioned above, the problem of dramaturgical selection is the fact that staged plays themselves are significantly critical and are Derridean deconstructions of revivalist cult. Stroupežnický, the Mrštík brothers and Preissová show that Czech countryside is riddled with hypocrisy and cruel morals. Maybe just Jirásek´s realistic-symbolistic national folk tale „Lucerna“ (The Lantern) is too plane a view of peculiarity of Czech people under the feudal yoke, although seasoned with piquant eroticism between the miller and the young princess and the decadent nihilism of the old water goblin. The productions of Lébl, Morávek, Pokorný and Pitínský may give the impression of postmodernism doubled, i.e. the revelation of something already revealed. When analysing a production, it is necessary to grasp the single components of the work and to find such a distinctive quality, or – to be more precise – the artist´s message which makes the production an account of the presence of something by observing their confluence or combination. Therefore I will focus on directing (mise en scène), dramaturgy, acting and stage design in my thesis. The text of the play in postmodern theatre may seem to be only a kind of springboard (e.g. because it is commonly known), through which the authors can tell their own story – about postmodernism at the end of the 20th century, as I have already described it. Nevertheless it is necessary for the research of postmodern theatre to focus also on the role of dramaturgy during rehearsals, because in this way we can succeed in clarifying the question of many critics, who ask to what extent the final form of interpretation of a classic text is an elaborated post-structure, in which semiotic symbols on the stage also carry some meanings of the author and to what extent it is a cluster of ideas, the mere concern of the director´s current inspiration (that is especially contradictory in Pokorný´s production of „Gazdina roba“ (The Farmer´s Wench) at the Theatre on the Ballustrade in 2004). It is also important for the defence of postmodernism itself because words like „wilfulness“, „randomness“, „pose“ are often used in critical discussions, in which postmodernism is placed in a pillory as a fashionable trend without deeper connotations. A distinctive component of stage design is typical for all the postmodern directors. Costumes and a stage set as well as ostensive signs take the audience through the lands of parodic pastiche. If the period after the Velvet Revolution is characterized by the banality of media pictures and the rampancy of kitch, these penetrate through the Baroque-like scenes in the productions of Lébl, Morávek 8

Macura, Vladimír: Znamení zrodu: české obrození jako kulturní typ. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1983, pp. 121 - 128

and Pitínský. Exemplary postmodern combination of high and low, hypertrophied decay stands on the border between admiration and disgust. Lébl in his production „Naši naši furianti“ (Our Our Swaggerers) (1994) tries to cover both the ridiculing of noble national attributes (the good Czech water goblin, the Blaník knight) and the intoxication of the unlimited possibilities after the fall of the Communist government. On the one hand, the production shows mockery of the self-confident pomposity when mankind builds a halo of nobility around itself, while on the other hand grotesque folk dances where any steps and movements are allowed make us feel sad over the world which cannot find a natural order of things without falling into the trap of totalitarianism or anarchy (this is the reality which the world comes to realize ever more stronglyafter 1989). However, if postmodern dramaturgy does not control the fine nuances of signs transmitted by the stage, production easily becomes a prostitute of banality and loses the magic of critical importance. This can be observed in Vladimír Morávek´s production of „Lucerna“ (The Lantern) in the National Theatre in Prague in 2001. Iconoclastic attacks against Czech symbols, e.g. the lime tree or gathering bizarre ideas that should make the audience laugh heartily were dissolved in the puddle of wilful acts. These can only offend the audience (which happens with the conservative audience of the National Theatre nearly every time). Authors take a stand of „avantgarde strangeness“ which has only form but not content. Another Morávek´s production „Maryša, popravdě však Mařka“ (1999) profits primarily from a stage design pastiche of girls and boys dressed in typical folk costumes and the cabaret colouring of a Moravian village, which changes the tragedy of unhappy marriage an emotional comedy. Acting is not based on one method, one style, through which the actor achieves the character. It is as if using Welsch´s transversal reason that Pavla Tomicová, in the role of Maryša, passes from affected hysteria approaching parody, real ironical distance from the lines of the text and quiet sorrowfulness which can make the audience cry or laugh, since the tortuous nature of the acting makes recipients of the message assess whether serious is ridiculous or vice versa. Another production of „Maryša“, directed by J. A. Pitínský in the National Theatre in 1999, shows that vagueness, a statement hidden in the chasm of explicit expression, also penetrates the mise en scène, which tries to seduce the spectator away from common expectations. The conclusion of the production is truly brilliant, when Pitínský placed the scene (some may find boring) of Vávra´s dialogue with his devastated wife when drinking poisoned coffee on the entirely bare stage. The actor and the actress sit on chairs with their backs turned on each other, each in one corner of the stage. What is ridiculous in quasi-realistic productions of the scene for its textbook notoriety, suddenly gains an unexpected power by lifting it out of the context of the audience´s experience. Two human beings lost in the black mouth of the world (stage) have lost all their energy and strength to find a way to each other. They dully stare into the void, they speak to each other but they do not look at each other. Pitínský does not even need that cup of coffee from the Jew. Vávra is „poisoned“ by the hatred of his wife, by

consequences of his own cruelty, by the world in which the man is told what his life should look like to win recognition. By deconstruction and the following reconstruction of the picture of the murder of the farmer Vávra, Pitínský presented a report which returns postmodernism to a modernist turn into the heart of man. The heart goes through historical periods with the unchanged longing for the sense of being and universal justice, which it lacks. When I leave the jungle of postmodernism after I finish my thesis, I may know, while still being naked with empty hands, robbed of all my clothes of life´s illusions, which significant aspects were contributed by the Czech theatre postmodernism of the 1990s to the history of culture. With greater erudition I will pass a report to the world claiming that history, man and his or her soul does not change. To be able to live only once means not to live at all. Every act of ours has a thousand alternatives longing to be implemented. Although Nietzsche´s almost-superman (Übermensch) merrily dances but on the billions of bones of those who have already died. Therefore postmodern doubts, questions and the specific humanism in the mind of Homo Sapiens have been an inseparable fellow traveller of our decision-making, of our dreams and artistic reflection of how we have lived since the prehistoric Big Bang.

Bibliography: Císař, Jan: Amatérské činoherní a alternativní divadlo. In: Císař, Jan a kol.: Cesty českého amatérského divadla. Vývojové tendence. Praha: IPOS – Informační a poradenské středisko pro místní kulturu, 1998. ISBN: 80-7068-129-2 Lyotard, Jean- Francois: O postmodernismu:postmoderno vysvětlované dětem:postmoderní situace (Le Postmoderne expliqué aux enfants, La Condition postmoderne). Translation: Jiří Pechar. 1. vyd. Praha: Filosofia, Macura, Vladimír: Znamení zrodu: české obrození jako kulturní typ. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1983 Marcelli, Miroslav: Michel Foucault alebo Stať se iným. Quotation from: Foucault M.: Truth, Power, Self: An Interview with Michel Foucault, in Technologies of the Self, The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988). Bratislava: Kalligram, 2005. ISBN: 80-7149723-1 Welsch, Wolfgang: Naše postmoderní moderna (Unsere postmoderne Moderne). Praha: Zvon, 1994. ISBN: 80-7113-104-0

Monitored productions: Preissová, Gabriela: Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter). Directed by: Jiří Pokorný. Činoherní studio Ústí nad Labem. Premiered on 29th September 1993 (renewed premiere of the original production in DISK) Stroupežnický, Ladislav: Naši naši furianti (Our our Swaggerers). Directed by Petr Lébl. Divadlo Na Zábradlí Praha. Premiered on 5th February 1994 Preissová, Gabriela: Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter). Directed by J. A. Pitínský. Městské divadlo Zlín. Premiered on 9th March 1996.

Mrštík, Alois – Mrštík, Vilém: Maryša, popravdě však ´Mařka´ čili ´To máš za to, bestijó´. Directed by Vladimír Morávek. Klicperovo divadlo Hradec Králové. Premiered on 16th October 1999. Mrštík, Alois – Mrštík, Vilém: Maryša. Directed by J. A. Pitínský. Národní divadlo v Praze. Premiered on 11th November 1999. Preissová, Gabriela: Gazdina roba (The Farmer´s Wench). Directed by J. A. Pitínský. 22nd January 2000 Slovácké divadlo Uherské Hradiště. Preissová, Gabriela: Gazdina roba (The Farmer´s Wench). Directed by Jiří Pokorný. Divadlo Na Zábradlí Praha. Premiered on 16th May 2004 Stroupežnický, Ladislav: Naši furianti (Our Swaggerers). Directed by J. A. Pitínský. Národní divadlo v Praze. Premiered on 17th June 2004.