The Black Light Theatre of Prague

Since the very beginning this Czech theatre ensemble has belonged to the best-known representatives of the Czech Theatre School world-wide. It participated in more than 65 international theatre festivals and performed more than 250 guest performances in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

When performing at the international theatre festival in Edinburg (Scotland) in 1962, the review published in the Times mentioned that this ensemble "brought back magic to the world stages". A principle, set by Jioí Srnec, the founder and art director of theatre, is based on creative use of a simple trick, so called "black cabinet". A primitive form of this principles was known even in ancient China and later on it has been used by magicians. Partially it was used also in cinema (Mélies) and theatre (Stanislavský). In the Black theatre it means that the black-dressed actors holding the requisites are not seen by the viewers against black background. By this way the requisites, things and objects seem to move themselves. However, this trick is not the main purpose of the plays performed by Jiří Srnec and his actors, but a way which could evoke scenic and mimic metaphoric, realised by movements of graphic artefacts and actors accompanied by music.
After years of guest performances without having its stable stage in Prague, now it is possible for both foreign and Czech visitors to meet this original Black Theatre in Prague in Divadlo v Celetné, which is going to perform the latest play "Bílý Pierot v černém" (White Pierot in Black) starting from April 2000.