SACRUM V PRAGMATICKOM SVETE – DIVADLO V CHRÁMOVOM A PREDCHRÁMOVOM PRIESTORE A V TICHU

The author of this paper examines the development of theatrical forms connected to liturgical space and the liturgical year. The author brings a testimony about a project which was started before the fall of socialism: The initiative of a group of Bratislava students staging The St. John Passion Play was not a generational theatre but a return to the discarded. The production in Bratislava’s Trinity Church was characterized by a fascinating modern dance expression presented against the background of Gregorian chant. The production was accompanied by the singing of a teachers’ choir Cantus and was shown in the Trinity Church in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and in St. Martin’s Cathedral in 1992. Then the author analyses a production by the Brno theatre. She also focuses on two projects by Slovak artists. Confronting stone and the body, Anna Sedlačková and Ľuboš Kľučár created a dance performance entitled De Profundis (27 – 29 Oct. 1992). Besides the stone statues of Viliam Loviška and Andrej Rudavský, the De Profundis production also worked with candles, water and clay. The space of the Cum Angelis production was delineated by two lines of Viliam Loviška’s peculiar polychrome and gilded angel heads which incorporated fragments of old disintegrated stone sculptures. The later work of the ensemble moved away from the theatre production principles verging on installation. It relied on integrating the sculptural principle and motion – deriving the production form from a facial mask á la Japanese Noh theatre. Anavim, which means “to the poor” in Hebrew, is a reference to Brook’s concept of a poor theatre. Similarly, Veni, the name of a music band, is actually the shortening of Veni Sancte Spiritus. From the viewpoint of dramaturgy, they were extensions of passion plays that could not be played under socialism. However, in retrospect, both “chapel projects” can be viewed as preliminary studies for outdoor passion plays under the title Passio produced a decade later on the Main Square in Bratislava. It was not meant to be a film-like realistic rendering of the passion plays. On the contrary, it can be characterized as fragmented, analytical and sculptural, with every motion representing a certain idea or movement of the heart.