Karoliny Světlé 18, Praha 1Since its foundation, Srnec Theatre - the 1st Black Light Theatre in the world – has belonged among the best known representatives of the Czech dramatic art in the world. The ensemble was established in 1961 in the middle of the avant-garde era. From the very beginning it made its mark as an ensemble of unique artistic qualities, which goes beyond the standard of most of its peers. The principle of the black light theatre, invented by the founder and artistic director Jiří Srnec, is based on a new creative exploitation of a simple trick, the so-called „black cabinet“, in which the actors dressed in black using props cannot be seen against the black background from the spectators‘ perspective. The props and all the other objects become able to move and they seem to live unique lives of their own. For Jiří Srnec and his performers, the effect of the trick is, of course, not the goal, but the means to achieve the artistic metaphor, implemented through the musically organized movement of plastic art objects and actors. The very first performance of the ensemble, which had already brought international attention, took place in 1959 in Vienna. The real debut for the ensemble, however, was its participation in the Theatre Festival in Edinburgh in 1962.
The company has already had more than 300 tours in 68 countries (e.g., China, Russia, USA (Las Vegas, New York), South America, Syria, Israel, Greece, Africa, Germany, Australia, France, Turkey, Thailand, Bolivia, Great Britain, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Monaco, South Korea, Norway, Sweden and many others), and attended 87 festivals.
The company’s performances were seen by more than 5 million spectators and the theatre also won countless international awards. In 2002 it was chosen to represent Czech culture during the NATO summit in Prague. In 2011,Jiří Srnec was awarded the Medal of Merit in the field of culture and art, in 2014 he was awarded the European cultural award Trebbia for creative activity, and in 2018 he received the special Thalia award for his "extraordinary contribution to the Czech theatre art".