The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene
O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American
Propaganda under Communism

k 2025

The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism

KAČER, Tomáš

Základní údaje

Originální název

The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism

Autoři

KAČER, Tomáš

Vydání

Mythos and Masks : Eugene O’Neill in Ancient and Modern Context, 12th International Conference on Eugene O'Neill), May 27-31, 2025, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, 2025

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Prezentace na konferencích

Obor

60206 Specific literatures

Stát vydavatele

Řecko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

The Eugene O'Neill Society web site

Označené pro přenos do RIV

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

Klíčová slova anglicky

Eugene O'Neill; Czechoslovakia; translation; criticism

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 23. 1. 2026 16:15, Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D.

Anotace

V originále

The paper has first provided the conference participants with an overview of pre-WWII productions of Eugene O’Neill’s plays, focusing on their radically experimental nature, furthering the Expressionistic tendencies and influences. It has discussed the role of the Czech practitioners such as K. H. Hilar (actor and director trained in the style of German Expressionism) and E. F. Burian (director and musician, an Avant-Garde theatre manager) and their stagings of O’Neill’s plays with an emphasis on their experimental nature (stage design, sound, masks and stage environment) and Modernist features. Historically speaking, some productions followed first stagings in the US very soon, which documents O’Neill’s influence, and reciprocally, acceptance, in the theatrically progressive circles in Central Europe between mid-1920s and mid-1930s. Then, the paper has dealt with the staging history of O’Neill’s drama in Czechoslovakia under Communism, between 1948 and 1989. It has presented my current research on the focus of dramaturgy (choice of plays, emphasis on topics within these plays), staging processes, and criticism, which followed a political aim: to present a point of criticism of American society. Ironically, the Communist critical views often clashed with O’Neill’s own leftist, but non-Marxist, position. For this reason, period interpretations disregarded a lot of O’Neill’s plays and themes that did not adhere to the Communist ideological position. A common technique to achieve a general criticism of the American way of life was to employ abstraction: thus, it was Mourning Becomes Electra that became the perceived core play of the O’Neill oeuvre in the Czechoslovakian theater context.

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1558/2024, interní kód MU

Název: Jazyk, literatura a kultura v anglofonních kontextech II

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Jazyk, literatura a kultura v anglofonních kontextech II

Citovat

KAČER, Tomáš. The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism. In Mythos and Masks : Eugene O’Neill in Ancient and Modern Context, 12th International Conference on Eugene O'Neill), May 27-31, 2025, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. 2025.

@proceedings{2505077,
   author = {Kačer, Tomáš},
   booktitle = {Mythos and Masks : Eugene O’Neill in Ancient and Modern Context, 12th International Conference on Eugene O'Neill), May 27-31, 2025, University of Athens, Athens, Greece},
   keywords = {Eugene O'Neill; Czechoslovakia; translation; criticism},
   language = {eng},
   title = {The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism},
   url = {https://www.eugeneoneillsociety.org/athens-25},
   year = {2025}
}

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ID  - 2505077
AU  - Kačer, Tomáš
PY  - 2025
TI  - The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism
KW  - Eugene O'Neill
KW  - Czechoslovakia
KW  - translation
KW  - criticism
UR  - https://www.eugeneoneillsociety.org/athens-25
N2  - The paper has first provided the conference participants with an overview of pre-WWII productions of Eugene O’Neill’s plays, focusing on their radically experimental nature, furthering the Expressionistic tendencies and influences. It has discussed the role of the Czech practitioners such as K. H. Hilar (actor and director trained in the style of German Expressionism) and E. F. Burian (director and musician, an Avant-Garde theatre manager) and their stagings of O’Neill’s plays with an emphasis on their experimental nature (stage design, sound, masks and stage environment) and Modernist features. Historically speaking, some productions followed first stagings in the US very soon, which documents O’Neill’s influence, and reciprocally, acceptance, in the theatrically progressive circles in Central Europe between mid-1920s and mid-1930s. Then, the paper has dealt with the staging history of O’Neill’s drama in Czechoslovakia under Communism, between 1948 and 1989. It has presented my current research on the focus of dramaturgy (choice of plays, emphasis on topics within these plays), staging processes, and criticism, which followed a political aim: to present a point of criticism of American society. Ironically, the Communist critical views often clashed with O’Neill’s own leftist, but non-Marxist, position. For this reason, period interpretations disregarded a lot of O’Neill’s plays and themes that did not adhere to the Communist ideological position. A common technique to achieve a general criticism of the American way of life was to employ abstraction: thus, it was Mourning Becomes Electra that became the perceived core play of the O’Neill oeuvre in the Czechoslovakian theater context.
ER  -

KAČER, Tomáš. The Road to Abstract Athens : Czech Interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s Plays from Early Productions to Anti-American Propaganda under Communism. In \textit{Mythos and Masks : Eugene O’Neill in Ancient and Modern Context, 12th International Conference on Eugene O'Neill), May 27-31, 2025, University of Athens, Athens, Greece}. 2025.

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