https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/issue/feed 2026-06-25T08:07:19+02:00 Theatralia theatralia@phil.muni.cz Open Journal Systems <!--<article class="box-article-list"> <p class="box-article-list__img"><img src="https://journals.phil.muni.cz/public/site/images/admin/test-obrazek2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="300" /></p> <div class="box-article-list__content"> <h2 class="box-article-list__title">Theatralia 1/2023</h2> <p class="box-article__desc"><span class="h3">The Roaring Twenties: Theatre of Early 2020s</span><br /><br />This issue of Theatralia explores the specificity of The Roaring 2020s' theatre and performance. It reflects on as well as contextualises contemporary theatre/performance practice, which has been significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, as well as by recent/current global conflicts and their consequences. In addition, this issue focuses on our 2020s knowledge of historical periods, namely of the historical avant-garde (including the original roaring 1920s), and their works of art.</p> </div> </article>--> https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44564 2026-06-25T08:07:16+02:00 Gabriella Reuss email@journals.phil.muni.cz Kateřina Dolenská email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44565 2026-06-25T08:07:16+02:00 Ildikó Limpár email@journals.phil.muni.cz

Budapest Puppet Theatre's production of Nick Dear's play Frankenstein, directed by Tamás Keresztes, foregrounds the eponymous protagonist's emotional detachment from the living as a direct motive for the hubris that brings about a series of tragedies enacted and embodied by the creature. The use of various puppetry mediates the dehumanising aspects and consequences of Frankenstein's performance as an unnatural God, the larger-than-human consequences of violating nature's law, as well as the fragmentated identity of both the creator and the creature. The analysed techniques include the modified bunraku technique using a giant puppet, the varied use of masks, video projection and shadow theatre.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44566 2026-06-25T08:07:16+02:00 Márta Hargitai email@journals.phil.muni.cz

In this article, I examine how the meaningful co-presence and interplay between puppets and the visible puppeteer add further layers to the interpretations of a Hungarian theatrical performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Rémusz Szikszai in 2018. The focus of the paper is on the re/presentation of the death of puppets, as Lady Macduff's two children and Lady Macbeth's baby are the only characters embodied by puppets in the performance and they either die on stage or are dead from the start. The paper will justify the various possible reasons for the production's use of puppets, such as – among others – to raise questions about the integrity of the personality and the body, to offer a way of coping with trauma, to make a political statement, or to emphasise the existential nature of the play. The paper will demonstrate that the production's employment of puppets is not merely decorative or popularity-seeking but adds multiple layers to its interpretation.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/41569 2025-08-01T22:32:57+02:00 Mascha Erbelding email@journals.phil.muni.cz

Bertolt Brecht's plays are not very often performed by puppet theatres. With regard on Brecht's alienation effect this fact is astonishing. Isn't the puppet ideal for creating distance in the audience? The article will present two very different puppet versions of The Good Person of Szechwan (premiere 1943 in Zurich) by Michael Meschke (Stockholm, 1963) and Moritz Sostmann (Köln, 2013). While Meschke decided to work with abstract rod puppets, Sostmann is combining actors/puppeteers with almost human-size puppets. The analysis of the two productions will show how with the help of alienation effects puppets can add to new interpretations of the drama as well as how Brecht's ideas influenced contemporary Western puppet theatre.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/41634 2025-08-15T22:11:31+02:00 Janka Kascakova janka.kascakova@ku.sk

Katherine Mansfield's The Daughters of the Late Colonel, one of her most powerful classic stories, follows two sisters struggling in the aftermath of their father's death. Although at first it seems they have finally gained freedom from his oppressive influence, it soon becomes clear that breaking free from ingrained patterns is difficult, if not impossible. This paper discusses the original ways Bábkové divadlo na Rázcestí (the Puppet Theatre at the Crossroads), Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, adapted and introduced this story to new audiences. It first examines how Mansfield's writing aligns with symbolic/non-realist art and masks. Then, it presents a case study on how the theatre company bridged the one-hundred-year time gap and the geographical and cultural distance between early 20th-century Anglophone modernism and 21st-century young Slavic and global mindsets. By connecting moments from the original text to the unique puppet performance, the paper demonstrates Mansfield's ongoing appeal across cultures and eras.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © 2026 Janka Kaščáková https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44567 2026-06-25T08:07:17+02:00 Ewa Tomaszewska email@journals.phil.muni.cz

The paper examines four different performances based on ancient tragedies: Euripides' Electra (premiere: 1991), two versions of Sophocles' Antigone (premieres: 2005, 2024), and Aeschylus' Oresteia (premiere: 2018). Four performances, four stage directors (Jerzy Zitzman, Bogusław Kierc, François Lazaro, Małgorzata Dębska), each representing a different style and a different approach to classical themes. The paper also explores the challenges of translation and the search for contemporary forms of expression that can effectively convey ancient dilemmas to modern audiences.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44568 2026-06-25T08:07:17+02:00 Eszter Angéla Kocsis email@journals.phil.muni.cz

Dot to Dot., a 45-minute experimental puppet performance premiered in 2023 at the Budapest Puppet Theatre, demonstrates puppeteers conveying emotion and narrative through movement and gesture alone. Using abstract dramaturgy, non-linear scenes, non-realistic puppets, and rolling robot balls as simple social robots, it engages audiences in active meaning- making. Linked to the author's PhD research on puppetry-robotics intersections, particularly nonverbal channels in human–robot interaction (HRI), the study employed drama workshops with children, questionnaires, and an online emotion-recognition experiment. Findings show puppetry's non-verbal system – movement, body language, visual symbolism – as culturally responsive yet universally rooted, offering inspiration for contemporary puppetry and socially adept robots, plus a proposed gesture-based puppetry lexicon for technological interaction.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/41510 2025-07-25T13:01:02+02:00 Yanna Kor email@journals.phil.muni.cz

During the early 1800s, itinerant puppeteers mainly performed the traditional marionette repertoire that had been passed down from previous centuries. However, by the mid-19th century, some had started to develop a different repertoire, drawing heavily on plays written by contemporary playwrights for actors. This tendency would greatly influence the Chok-Pitou theatre (c. 1830–1914). The theatre's library, which is preserved at the Gadagne Museums' Documentation Centre (Lyon), provides a valuable opportunity to examine the processes involved in adapting plays for actors to travelling marionette stages, as well as the driving forces behind play selection. Through the lens of rewriting, this article sheds light on the enriching encounter between theatre for actors and travelling marionette theatre in 19th century France.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44569 2026-06-25T08:07:18+02:00 Kristýna Krejčová email@journals.phil.muni.cz Jana Spáčilová email@journals.phil.muni.cz

Operu s názvem Il viaggiatore americano in Joannesberg složil Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf k příležitosti jmenin svého zaměstnavatele, vratislavského biskupa Philippa Gottharda Schaffgotsche. Autorem libreta, které vykazuje prostřednictvím neobvyklých motivů silnou návaznost děje na Jánský Vrch (místo provedení opery), byl biskupův sekretář abbé Salvatore Ignazio Pintus. Analýza dochovaných exemplářů libreta odhalila zcela výjimečné prolínání fiktivního děje a reálného světa. To umožnilo spolu s dalšími prameny ztotožnit konkrétní pěvecké sólisty a hudebníky, kteří se provedení opery účastnili. Detailnější pozornost je věnovaná také charakteristice jednotlivých vystupujících postav a dalším motivům libreta.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44570 2026-06-25T08:07:18+02:00 Eleni Timplalexi email@journals.phil.muni.cz

Postdramatic theatre, celebrating bodily physicality and asemiotic sensations, declares as aesthetically superior de-dramatic theatre performance. However, when provoked in relation to Lehmann's eleven stylistic traits, this performance trend, rather belonging to the category of the 'spectacle', is found to enact anew the Cartesian mind/body split, establishing it as its fiction. In light of ecology and phenomenology of perception, as well as theories of social cognition, its theory is revealed as a normalising aesthetic proposal, undermining social interaction and cognition, which constitute the basis both of social life and of theatre.

2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44571 2026-06-25T08:07:18+02:00 Kateřina Dolenská email@journals.phil.muni.cz Jana Wolfová email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44572 2026-06-25T08:07:19+02:00 Jennifer A. Low email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44573 2026-06-25T08:07:19+02:00 Yuan Liu email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © 2026 Yuan Liu https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44574 2026-06-25T08:07:19+02:00 Gabriella Reuss email@journals.phil.muni.cz Dániel Fehér email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright © https://journals.phil.muni.cz/theatralia/article/view/44575 2026-06-25T08:07:19+02:00 Lilla Lovas email@journals.phil.muni.cz 2026-06-15T00:00:00+02:00 Copyright ©