Drama and Democracy: An Exploration of Democracy in Arthur Miller's Plays on Pilsen Stages

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the rendition of democracy in Miller's plays performed on Pilsen stages in terms of the signifi cant social and political events and developments in the second half of the 20th century. Not long after World War II, the formerly tense wartime atmosphere seemed to come back to life on the stage. To state a particular instance, All My Sons, produced on September 25, 1948 under the direction of Zdeněk Hofb auer with Ota Ornest's translation, not only mirrored the wartime era, but, in some respects, also anticipated the era that was to come. The next production of a play by Miller, A View from the Bridge, under the direction of Jiří Dalík using Jan Grossman's translation, had its premiere only in 1962. It was staged during the directorship of Václav Špidla (1959–1963), whose version of Macbeth (1963) established a short, new theatrical era in Pilsen Theatre. During Jan Fišer's directorship (1963–1969), two productions of Miller's plays were staged: Incident at Vichy (1965) and The Crucible (1967). With respect to the socio-political climate, both interpretations might have anticipated the loosening of the political atmosphere towards the late 1960s, which was nevertheless disrupted by “normalization”. It is thus possible to suppose that democracy might have constituted a distinguishing feature of both