Probably the count Wallenstein made a decision by himself on plays which might appear on the stage of the castle theatre in Litomyšl. They were simple farces and conversation comedies with uncomplicated plots; most of them were plays that didn't outlive their period. We can find information about the repertoire in the inventory of the theatre garderobe (some of the garderobe's pieces were made especially for the concrete performances) as well as in accounts; however the most open source of information is the kit of transcribed plays, which was found in the locked drawer of the long time unused table in 1962. It's possible to specified the period of the theatre activity, when this and that text was written, mainly because of some text's date and different handwritings.

Obviously the first play to be performed on the stage of the castle theatre (on the occasion of the count's namedate on April 1798) was Friedrich Wilhem Zigler's farce “The Lover and the Rival in One” (“Liebhaber und Nebenbuhler in einer Person”). The count played the hare role of the publican Brenner and his wife played sweetheart, the blacksmith's daughter Mary. While the countess played the roles of principal ladies in next years, the count played grotesque roles above all. Ziegler's “Lover” appeared on the stage of the castle theatre many times even in later years.

Other Ziegler's plays, whose inscenations are documented, are “Die Fürstengrösse” and “Der Lorberkranz” oder die Macht der Gesetze”, which was probably the weightiest play playing in the castle theatre in Litomyšl according to its plot. Ziegler wasn't the author, whose plays were the most staged plays in Litomyšl - the performances of other dramatics were more often. We can mention August Kotzebue, obviously most frequently performed author (there are 28 his plays, which are written out in the collection), J. F. Jünger or Huber. F. W. Gotter, K. Lebrün, K. F. Hensler, F. L. Schröder, A. F. Stein, P. Wiedmann, A. Bäuerle and number of others are represented by one or two plays. Most of the plays, whose texts had been preserved in Litomyšl, used to be performed on the stages of Viennese theatres successfully; the performance of these plays weren't too demanding for actors in Litomyšl, who used to be in fact just amateur actors.

The detail information concerning repertoire among the years 1827 - 1845 are recorded in The Memory Book, which was written for the countess Kajetána from Wallenstein. At this time actors performed 37 plays in 20 evenings. A. Koetzebue were the most performed author of the plays again; we can find just one tragedy "Kleopatra" among his 11 plays. Plays of other authors ( C. Meisel, T. Körner, Raupach or Hageman) belonged to the favorite comedies - we can find here for example these titles of the plays: "The Doctor Kramperl or Five Bridegrooms and One Wife " or "Sealed Magistrate". We can find some French plays in mainly German repertoire among the years 1841 - 1845. Mainly young count Anthony II and countess Henriette and Caroline performed with other actors in these French plays.

The repertoire of the amateur's performances after the half of the 19th century have been the separate chapter in the history of the castle theatre in Litomyšl. This repertoire have been documented by notices inside of the promptbox just in the theatre. The amateurs performed in Czech and the last statement of their activity in the castle theatre was from the year 1922.

Back to the beginnig of this page |    | Back to the main menu |