KATALOG (ke stažení) - Prague Quadrennial

of a short satirical play or comedy. Iceland was a Danish colony at the
time and eventually the authorities found these activities offensive and
banned them. The ban was finally lifted in 1820 and when the school
moved to Reykjavík in 1846, the students' annual performances began
reaching a wider audience. Reykjavík was only a small town at the time,
but amateur dramatic societies were soon established and plays were
regularly performed in both Danish and Icelandic.
During the latter half of the 19 th
century, the theatre became the most
popular form of entertainment, a status it still retains. The chief exponent
of the theatre at the time was the painter Sigurdur Gudmundsson, who
single-handedly revolutionized Icelandic theatre. Realizing its potential
against foreign oppression, and this eventually led him to express the
need for a national stage from which the people could be enlightened
and made aware of their national identity. Gudmundsson became the
first stage designér and can also be considered the first director,
since he frequently ušed to arrange the actors to create a tableaux. His
settings usually depicted an Icelandic landscape through the use of
a painted backdrop and flats, while interiors were made from painted
flats. Gudmundsson was also the first to use make-up on his actors as
a means for artistic expression. Gudmundsson was a romantic, both as
an artist and visionary, and his ideál was that Iceland will have a national
drama created from folklóre. He thus prompted poets to write plays
from folklóre, suggesting that the craft be learned by translating great
works, such as the plays of Shakespeare and Moliěre.
In špite of Gudmundssoďs untimely death in 1874, his influence was
evident well into this century, in playwrighting as well as in scenery.
When the Reykjavík Theatre Company was established in 1897, the aim
was to secure the growth of Icelandic drama and to raise the standard
of productions. True to Gudmundssoďs ideals, the company presented
a large number of new Icelandic plays, mostly neoromantic in vein,
until 1920, with scenery in Gudmundssoďs style. Until 1950 the company
managed to gradually raise standards, recruiting the first professional
actors, who arrived on the scene from training abroad during the twenties
and thirties.
The existence of the Reykjavík Theatre Company was threatened in 1950
with the opening of the new National Theatre, since nearly all the
actors were recruited for the new theatre. A handful of idealists decided
to preserve and carry on in competition with the National Theatre. The
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