GOLDFLAM, ARNOŠT

GOLDFLAM, ARNOŠT (1946– ), Czech playwright, writer, director, screenwriter, and actor. Born to Holocaust survivors in Brno (Moravia), Goldflam studied theater directing at the Janáček Academy of Music Arts. He worked in various theaters until 1992, when he began freelancing. He was involved in many performances at home and abroad. Goldflam is the author of more than 25 plays, such as Horror (1981); Biletářka ("The Ticket Girl," 1983); Útržky z nedokončeného románu ("Scraps of an Unfinished Novel," 1985); Agatománie ("Agathomania," 1987); Písek ("The Sand," 1987); and Smlouva ("The Contract," 1999). Goldflam's plays oscillate between the tragic and the comic, the realistic and the dreamlike, between a dramatic construction and real life, often combined with the absurd. He is influenced by his Jewish heritage. One of his plays, Sladký Theresienstadt ("Sweet Theresienstadt," 1996), is based on a diary from the Terezín concentration camp. In his work, Goldflam is also drawn to Jewish authors. His dramatic adaptations comprise works by franz kafka , franz werfel , joseph roth , and Karel Poláček . He was active as a theater and film actor, wrote stories and fairytales, and taught at the Faculty of Drama in Brno. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Lehár a kol., Česká literatura od počátků k dnešku (1998); A. Mikulášek et al., Literatura s hvězdou Davidovou, vol. 1 (1998). (Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)