End of Shrovetide

Josef Topol
Konec masopustu (End of Carnival)
A play
11 men, 3 women, 11 mummers

Topol´s most famous work and the theatrical event of 1964. Directed by Otomar Krejča, play appeared in the National Theatre which was - at the time - contemporary. As well as being a realistic story about the love of a young Praguer, expelled from college, and a country girl, the doughter of the last private farmer in the village, it was also a tragically strong parable about the huge change in thinking and feeling which was gradually coming about in Czech society in the fifteenth year after the communist putsch. Together with the "ploughing up of barries" as the traditional slogan of the unhappy period of collectivisation went, the centuries-old moral order also disappeared, the basis of country society, nature and natural relationships. Just like the Lenten mummers, people put on masks so that they could merge with others and relieve themselves of their own responsibility.

Translated into German, English and French.