In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of the theatre of the absurd, a new the- ater developed, operating apolitically in the Western European, however in countries with repres- sive systems it represents a means of political theatre.
In the diploma thesis I compare politically engaged drama in repressive social systems through a comparison of the plays The Audience and Vernissage by the Czech writer Václav Havel and plays The Fools and The Military Secret of the Slovene playwright and director Dušan Jovanović.
While Jovanović is considered one of the most important theater aritists in Yugoslavia, Havel lives the life of a dissident in his homeland, completely banned from working in theatre, yet at the same time reaps great success abroad. As a result of their different lives, their drama is very different, de- spite the fact that they share a common denominator of the drama of the absurd. In Havel, social criticism takes place through the intimate sphere and is only indirectly transferred to the authorities, while in Jovanović we can observe the technique of transferring events to incredible circumstance, thus distancing his criticism from real social occurrences enough not to encounter greater resistance from the authorities. Their drama is thus significantly marked by their attitude towards power and simultaneous cultural policy.
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