Abstract
This article is a comparative review of performances of Western European and American authors in Slovak and Slovenian theatres in the two decades after World War II. First, we present a short historical context, comparing the political systems and cultural policies of both states. We define the importance of the selection of works for the repertoire(s) and then parallel them to the main characteristics, authors, and dramatic texts prevalent in that period. Second, we highlight the particularities of staging of the Western European and American authors in both cultural spaces, evaluate their importance, and explicitly determine the fundamental differences between the two theatre spaces and performing arts in the socialist system in general. Third, we expose the similarities and differences in the quantity and diversity of authors. This is done on the basis of the performances by institutional theatres, recorded in the repertoire databases of the respective countries. Everything deviating from the norm is located in a separate chapter, as a phenomenon, where we are looking for the reasons for (not) performing certain authors or poetics. The article functions as a review of the period, and seeks to shed light on theatre production in the Central European cultural area during the undemocratic socialist regime, regardless of basic differences between the two political systems.
The Repertoires of Slovak and Slovenian Theatre Houses and their Productions of the Western European and American Authors (1945 – 1970)