Black Light Theatre

Czech-pioneered stage psychodelics.

One of the more unusual cultural experiences a visitor to Prague can have: taking in a performance of a company using the techniques of black light theatre, which was pioneered as a dedicated stage subgenre by Czechs in the 1960s. The performers come onto a darkened stage dressed completely in black or in fluorescent costumes. By strategically illuminating the stage with UV light, all sorts of special visual effects can be created. This form of theatre has become an extremely popular draw for visitors, both because of its instrinsic novelty and aesthetic merits but also because it is not dependent on knowledge of any particularly language, as the shows consist of music, gestures, and imagery but do not include spoken dialogue. There are a number of companies working in this idiom; three good ones are Black Light Theatre Image (www.imagetheatre.cz/en), Black Light Theatre Animato (www.blacklighttheatreprague.cz), and Wow Black Light Theatre (www.wow-show.com/en).