Eduard Vojan

Born May 6, 1853, in Prague; died there May 31, 1920. Czech actor.

In 1869, Vojan made his debut in J. Cramer’s troupe in the town of Kungost; he then performed with several traveling troupes. The innovative, realistic thrust of Vojan’s acting kept him from appearing for a long time at the Prague National Theater, where conservative tendencies were predominant. But in 1888 he began to act there, and in 1900, after new management took over, he became the leading actor of the theater. Among Vojan’s important roles were the following: Jan Hus and Jan Žižka (in Jirásek’s plays of those names), Francek (in Maryša, by the Mrštik brothers), Vershinin (in Chekhov’s Three Sisters), Hamlet and Othello (in the plays by Shakespeare), Doctor Rank (in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House), and Cyrano de Bergerac (in Rostand’s play).