Kovács Tivadar szerk.: Theatrum — Színháztudományi értesítő 1963/1

Idegen nyelvű ismertetések

The lecturer proved that dramatic works cam. go ahead of their time without their appropriate stage-forms. For example in Eastern Europe the modern drama, written in the national language precedes the formation of modern professional bourgeois acting with centuries. I.e. in the XVIth century not only in western and south-west Europe, but with the Sloven, the Croatian, the Czech, the Polish and the Hungarian also the renaissance national drama comes to life. At the same time, since the middle classes had not yet been formed, bourgeois acting did not exist either. Therefore while professional acting in the Western European countries goes back as far as to the XVIth c. the same process is accomplished towards the end of the XVIIIth century in Central and in north-east Europe, and only in the XXth century in the south-eastern parts. Uptill that time - at least in the countries that were free from Turkish occupation - dramatic forms of a feudal character existed: school dramas, and plays meant for court performances. It is very characteristic of the development of Eastern Europe that the birth of national acting was everywhere accompanied by very high cultural aspirations and that professional acting proved to be am important factor of the national independence and of the development of bourgeois civilization,and the movement of enlightenment demanded the formation of national theatre companies all over Eastern Europe in one voice. The ethnic character of the Eastern European stages also shows a historical-typological accord. At the time of the formation of bourgeois acting the vernacular and the national elements were closely interwoven in these countries. After the analysis of the identical theatrical forms and of the identical social conditions that had called them to life, Dr. Tekla Dömötör raised the question of the - 186 -