Hledání ztraceného Voskovce – Vodňanský Jan (2019)

Jan Vodňanský's new book is not just a report from a visit to Jiří Voskovec in New York. Jiří Voskovec was just one of a whole series of "culprits" who were the reason for the journey across the ocean. When Voskovec and Werich launched their student prank Vest pocket revue in April 1927 – without even planning it! – they had no idea they were making history in modern Czech theater. They never dreamed that their Osvobozené divadlo would become a sensation, later a thorn in the side of both Czech and German fascists, and ten years after the theater's closure, it would become a material begrudgingly tolerated by the communists in textbooks. The humor and poetry of V&W became a lifeline for the movement of small theater forms in the 1960s not only in Bohemia but also in Slovakia. At that time, Semafor was shining brightly, and a certain Vodňanský met a certain Skoumal. Their first songs were known first by classmates from parties and later by visitors to Reduta, Ateliér, and Divadlo hudby. In the midst of the turbulent spring of 1969, they amazed the audience of the Činoherní klub with a full-length program titled S úsměvem idiota. The history of Czech textappeal is also a history of numerous misunderstandings, small and large bans, and subsequent troubles. And the fact that Jan Vodňanský corresponded with the "American" George Voskovec also caused him some issues with certain authorities...