Current Affairs Voskovec and Werich: a fruitful cooperation that continued across the Atlantic
In the 1920s and 30s the actors Jiri Voskovec and Jan Werich became legendary for their bitingly satirical songs that parodied the politics of the time in the tense years leading up to the war. Their "Osvobozene divadlo" - or "Liberated Theatre" - is remembered and loved to this day. During the wartime occupation the two men escaped to America, but then their careers took very different directions. Werich returned home, and took roles in several well-known films of the 50s and 60s, while Voskovec decided to stay in the States. Against the odds and despite never shaking off his Czech accent he had a successful Hollywood career. Smuggling their letters past the censors, the two men continued to write to one another across the Iron Curtain, and in a way this correspondence was a continuation of their fruitful earlier literary cooperation. Now, for the first time, some of the letters have just been published.
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