Even if Brno can boast of the oldest still existing theatre building in
Central Europe, the so-called Reduta at the Cabbage Market, the Czechspeaking
theatre companies did not have much opportunity to use this
building for their activities until the foundation of the First Czechoslovak
Republic. Wandering theatre companies as well as amateur ensembles
had to settle for lounges in various Brno inns. The situation was partly
solved by the association house Besední dům where both professional
and amateur theatre performances in Czech language were given in 1873
- 1884. In 1881 the so-called Association for the Czech national theatre
in Brno was founded that obtained the concession for staging Czech
plays. The association bought the house U Marovských in Radvit square
where the Provisory National Theatre Brno, called Theatre in Veveří, was
inaugurated in 1884.
From the beginnings of the theatre in Brno, its management focussed on
the staff and the development of all the ensembles whose quality was
comparable to that of Prague. In the course of two decades the cast
of opera and dramatic ensemble was stabilised. Outstanding actors
from Prague theatre, Marie Hübnerová and Eduard Vojan, had been its
members during the wandering period and gave guests performances
there; so did the world-famous opera singers Ema Destinová or Karel
Burian.
The opera ensemble was dominated by Cyril Metoděj Hrazdira, the fi rst
conductor of the Cunning little Wixen by Janáček. Members of famous
actor’s families, e.g. that of Alois Vojta-Jurný and Ema and Ladislav Pech,
performed in the dramatic ensemble.
Similarly as in Prague, specifi c avant-garde theatre ensembles came
into being in Brno in the 1920s. From the artistic point of view the Czech
studio is incontestably the most important, founded by Brno conservatory
students, headed by Vladimír Gamza (1902-1929) and supported
ideologically by Jiří Mahen. Another ensemble, infl uenced in a way
by the poetics of Voskovec and Werich, was the Academic scene
performing in the then new theatre at the Fair ground (1928-1931).
In 1929 Jindřich Honzl (1894-1953) became director and literary
manager of the National Theatre and Emil František Burian (1904 -
1959) was employed as director and organiser of the nascent Studio
of the National Theatre Brno. Even if their activities in Brno lasted only
two years, remarkable plays were staged under their direction that helped
to revive the dismal dramatic repertoire.
The literary work of the brothers Alois and Vilém Mrštík is strongly
connected with Moravian topics. While the older Alois (1861-1925)
became famous as author of short stories (Dobré duše, Hore Váhom
etc.), the younger Vilém (1863-1912) was a novelist infl uenced in a way
by Russian critical realism and French naturalism. In his novels Santa
Lucia (1893) and Pohádka máje (1879) one feels strong autobiographical elements showing the loss of illusions of a Moravian student in a large city.
The most important works are incontestably those written in co-operation
of the two brothers; their joint play Maryša (1894) is the chef d’oeuvre
of Czech realistic drama and their novel chronicle in nine volumes Rok na
vsi (A Year in the Village, 1903-1904) remains unrivalled in the Czech
literature.
Since mid-1950s theatre groups started to appear in Moravia following
up with the poetics of the pre-war avant-garde theatre. These ensembles
revived the tradition of authorial, literary, cabaret and satiric stages.
In the course of following decades ensembles started to expand
developing the alternative line of the theatre culture and introducing nontraditional
theatrical forms. For example let us mention the satiric cabaret
Večerní Brno (Brno in the Evening, 1959-1992), Divadlo X (Theatre
X, 1959-1989) – a kind of poetic theatre, the ensemble focussing
on laboratory work QUIDAM (1966-1972), the poetic theatre Nepojízdná
housenka (Stationary caterpillar, 1982-1985) and the ensemble called
Ochotnický kroužek (Amateur circle, 1985-1990). Top projects of this
kind are the ensembles Husa na provázku (Goose on the string, since
1967) and Hanácké divadlo (HaDivadlo, 1974-1985 in Prostějov and
since 1985 in Brno).