Together they listened to the two-part program Viola – our love, which was prepared for Czech Radio by Viola’s longtime director Lída Engelová together with actor Jaroslav Someš and dramaturg Lucía Němečková.
Not only the history of Viola, but also its present and outlook on the future were covered in two hours. The creators have collected a unique set of speeches by personalities associated with Viola and aimed at defining the almost unassailable charm of the place, which has transformed from a poetic wine bar into a distinctive chamber theater scene.
Photo: Viktor Kronbauer
From left, violist Jitka Hosprová, actor Luděk Munzar and pianist Emil Viklický met in 2010 in Jaroslav Seifert’s poetry show Concert on the Island.
The meeting was symbolically directed to the day when the iconic program of Holan’s poem A Night with Hamlet premiered sixty years ago.
It was brought to Viola, still unpublished, by the editor of the Odeon publishing house at the time, Vladimír Justl, who in 1965 became Viola’s director and spiritual guru for twenty-seven years, where – with the biblical quote mentioned in Karel Höger’s memory – the word was made flesh.
Even before that, in the summer of 1963, the program Whose Jazz Belongs premiered in Viola.
Because jazz, in addition to beautiful words and acting personality, became Viola’s third building block, performed by excellent musicians from Luďek Hulan to Emil Viklický, who has been associated with Viola for many years until now.
Photo: Viktor Kronbauer
Actress Daniela Kolářová in Viktoria Hradská’s play Commedia finita
Viola was born in years blessed for theater and art, but she was able to carry their free atmosphere through the difficult years of normalization. Back then, it often found itself on the verge of being banned under the pressure of totalitarian ideology, after November 1989 it was threatened with extinction for economic reasons. Even through this period, Viola was able to pass with honor thanks to the efforts of a number of people who have always cared, care and will care about her existence.
From 1992, Miluše Viklická took over the director’s scepter, for whom Viola, with whom she had already collaborated in previous decades, literally became her life’s mission. During its twenty-four-year tenure, Viola has evolved from a poetic café to an intimate theater. In the years 2016–22, the director Robert Tamchyna continued in her spirit, who tried to introduce more modern technologies and direction into Viola’s operation.
Photo: Viktor Kronbauer
Director Miloš Horanský was one of Viola’s longtime creators. Pictured in the program Shakespeare’s Holiday Mail in the costume of William Shakespeare.
And under the leadership of the current director Lenka Plavcová and the guardians of its spiritual mission, directors Lída Engelová and Tomáš Vondrovica, it continues to bear its reputation as an exceptional place.
But it’s getting harder and harder for him. Not from an artistic point of view, because the legendary actors, whose faces have been looking down from the walls of Viola, Zdenek Štěpánek, Eduard Kohout, Václav Voska, Karel Höger, Dana Medřická, Rudolf Hrušínský and many others, have been replaced by a younger generation who carry their legacy with dignity and bravery and passionately on. But it necessarily requires financial help.
Relying on uncertain grant support, she would need to find a permanent generous sponsor who would guarantee that this “jewel on the body of the Czech theatre”, as director Radovan Lipus described Viola, will continue to shine for decades to come.
Photo: Viktor Kronbauer
From the left, Jan Hartl and Marek Eben in Viola approach the beauty of the Czech language by reading books from Pavel Eisner.
Director of the Viola Theater Robert Tamchyna: The break caused reflections on the future
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2023-11-21 16:08:33
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