It can be said that the foundation stones of the “At the Spider Winebar” are of the same material as the foundation stones of the later [] Theatre of Jára Cimrman. The rocks used are known as hoax and pseudoscience, both in the service of humour.
The originator of the idea to create the TJC was Jíří Šebánek. He wrote the following to me about his first impulse in a personal letter:
“…One evening in the middle of October 1966… I sat with Helena Philippová and Vladimír Tomek in a pub Velkobaráčnická Rychta on Neruda Street in Lesser Town. In the neighbouring theatre they were rehearsing a play. Their reverberations penetrated now and again into the pub until finally it made me think: when [Baracknici] have their own theatres, why can’t we have one too?
In this way a thought made itself felt, that we men lack a place where at least once a week we could get together and [uchylovat] like our granfathers who every Saturday washed and set off for the pub to play skittles. A place women recognised as the preserve of men. This dream was intended to be realised with the establishment of a men’s theatre. J Šebánek based this on the premise, later proven correct, that humour honed on radio with a considerable response, ought also to find a sufficient audience on the theatre scene.
On the 29th of October, 1966, this idea, in the form of a manifesto, was entrusted to Miloń Čepelka, Ladislav Smoljak a Zdeněk Svěrák. All of them at first heartily laughed at the idea, relying as it did on their participation on this proposed theatre, and as evening rolled on, when the level of the bottles around them had approached the bottom, they began to soberly consider buying curtains.
The University of Gav 