OVERVIEW

If we say Topol – artist the younger of us remember the writer Jáchym or the leader of the group Psí vojáci (Dog soldiers) Filip. But we return to the big work of their father, playwright Josef. He started after the war with E. F. Burian and he wait for his distinction with director Otomar Krejča. After signing the Chart 77 he became inconvenient to the regime and he could work only in workers’ professions. The play “The End of Carnival” was written in 1963 and Topol depicted in it, on the background of one family, the impact of collectivization of the country on the fates of people as well as on the character of countryside; the balks are ploughed away, traditional relationships among people are destroyed, those who will later lead the economy to ruin come into power... The play was designated by critics as one of the best poetical dramas of the 20th century: real pictures of life in villages are interchanged with world of theatre fantasy in the form of carnival whirl, a traditional folk ceremony in which we can follow common stereotypes. Topol faces myths with reality, idyllic and idealised village with real village full of silent conflicts, prejudices, deep passions and instincts. Nothing is just black and white, everyone is sometimes wrong and makes mistakes. 

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