Theatre as Applied Phenomenology

I have just started my work on a new research project, a reconstruction and analysis of a theatre performance Písek (The Sand) by Arnošt Goldflam, staged in 1988 at HaDivadlo (abbreviation for Hanakian Theatre) in Brno. The lead was performed by Miloslav Maršálek. This my research is a part of a wide project focused on documentation of Czech alternative theatres in recent history. The project is directed by Josef Kovalčuk at Theatre Faculty, JAMU in Brno.

The piece was well appreciated by critics at that time: Jaroslava Suchomelová recognised some parts of the perfomance as "the best spectator's experience in the last years" (Suchomelová, 1988), a reviewer in Brněnský večerník recommended it to reader with a note that the perfomance had to be viewed attentively as an artwork full of complex meanings (ej, 1988). Even the calmest response by Jaromír Blažejovský appreciated it at least as a piece of "honest work" and the reviewer mentioned that it served "a strong tea" to spectator's soul (Blažejovský, 1988).

The work on the research is exciting in a special way for me. Alongside this project I am working on my longstanding concern, a conceptual analysis of mimesis from a viewpoint of phenomenological hermeneutics. I am focused on Gaston Bachelard's phenomenogical reduction now (in his Poetics of Space and Poetics of Dreaming) and it seems to be a good opportunity to rethink Bachelard's concept in the light of the performance.

Arnošt Goldflam widely used a motif of childhood in the play and the protagonist was set to a situation akin to Bachelard's "naive state" of phenomenological reduction. As a methodical lone the protagonist falls to his memory and imagination being a permanent day-dreamer and he even reaches his own childishness. Therefore I hope that the analysis of the performance may be worth while for the reflection of Bachelard's concept of phenomenological reduction as well - as an example of particular phenomenological approach in artwork (as an artistic method).

For more information about the play in English see a brief analysis in Burian, 2000: 170-172. 

References

ej [an acronym] "Hra o tom, co bolí" in Brněnský večerník, Brno 7. 11. 1988.
BACHELARD, Gaston. La poétique de l'espace. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1961.
BACHELARD, Gaston. La poétique de la rêverie. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1968.
BLAŽEJOVSKÝ, Jaromír. "Nová hra Arnošta Goldflama" in Rovnost, Brno 10. 3. 1988.
BURIAN, Jarka M. Modern Czech Theatre: Reflector and Conscience of a Nation. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000.
SUCHOMELOVÁ, Jaroslava. "Z dílny HaDivadla" in Zemědělské noviny, Praha 4. 10. 1988.