Thursday, January 20th, 2022 Hasan Zahirović - Karel Čapek, an export author: Robots, Newts and White Disease

Description

Between the two world wars, Karel Čapek was the Czech nation’s leading novelist, playwright, newspaper columnist, travel writer, and critic. I would love to talk about his penultimate play, ‘The White Disease,’ which was a dark satirical send-up of fascism and opportunism, set against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic. The antimilitary utopian play was as prescient then as it is topical today, in the time of coronavirus. His play “R.U.R.,” which gave birth to a word robot, was also a critique of mechanization and the ways it can dehumanize people. I will also present the situation in the Czech and Slovak theatre scene in the years of pandemic and restrictions. It will be interesting to discuss if Czech and world theatre in general have anything new to offer and which topics they deal with the most. What can we learn from Čapek’s plays after 100 years of modern civilisation?

Hasan Zahirović (1975, Bosnia and Hercegovina) graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Sarajevo, majoring in pedagogy, and the Faculty of Humanities in Mostar, majoring in acting. He completed a Master’s degree in theatre science at the Faculty of Philosophy of Masaryk University and a doctoral degree at Theatre Academy in Prague, majoring in Stage Design and Theory of Stage Design. He works in the field of Cultural Dramaturgy at the Silesian University and Theatre D21 in Prague. He focuses on acting, translation, and theatre science, specifically on interwar and modern Czech theatre. His research is based on Karel Čapek’s plays and their reception in ex-Yugoslav theatres, as well as the contemporary reception of Čapek’s plays worldwide.