In 1979, Polish theatre historian, Kazimirz Braun defined the development in post-war Euro-American theatre as the so-called second theatre reform. One of its characteristic was a „return to the roots“, a return to an original primitive theatre free of the ballast of conventions and commerce. Such a return was usually carried out by exploring primal rituals, archetypal motifs, reducing the visual components, moving towards anti-aesthetics and recycling of materials. The paper focused on specific demonstrations in the Czechoslovak theatre of the Normalization time (that is, in the 1970s and 1980s). Through several examples paper illustrated answers on some questions connected with the topic( e.g. forms of expression, emerged themes, reaction from the superior political institutions, reactions of the audience, etc.)