Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1975 - 26

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Fig. 28. J. Capek, The Bourgeois Gentleman (Moliere). 23 Spe.
1926, National Theatre, Prague. dir: K. Dostal.

Fig. 29. J. Capek, Summer (Sramek), 23 Mar. 1926, National
Theatre, Prague, dir: V. Novak.

his designs for H. Gheon's Bread (Prague 1922) and F.
Langer's Periphery, Prague 1925. Most notable here is
Capek's use of abstractly stylized painted forms and, even
more, his overlapping, loosely interlocking series of
expressively outlined surfaces that fill one side of the
stage. The setting in its vibrant colo.!Jltion and dramatic
interplay of painted forms is among Capek's boldest. His
general comments on some tendencies in modern art are
of particular interest in this connection:
Large colored surfaces, sharp linearity, contours, emphatic
colorfulness and structure in the coating of painting .... FormerIy, line and color were concealed beneath an appearance of
nature, atmosphere, but today it is almost the opposite: today
line and color are on the surface; they relate to each other
nakedlY and purely right on the canvas. 14

M. Achard's Marlboroi!Jh's Campaign (Figure 30)
Prague 1929 demonstrates Capek's naive, child-like vision
of reality with its playful ignorance of the laws of
proportion and other realistic criteria. Also characteristic
are the thick outlines, the rounded edges, the stubbiness
of the forms, and the essential nature of the set as painted
background.
A perfect example of the contrast between designers
like Capek and Heythum is illustrated by their handling of
the same author. Compare Capek's set for Aristophanes'
Women in Parliament (Figure 31) with Heythum's for
Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae.
Capek's position among his peers has been most

Fig. 30. J. Capek, Marlborough's Campaign (M. Achard), 23 Feb.
1929. Vinohrady Theatre, Prague, dir: B. Stejskal.

Fig. 31. J. Capek, Women in Parliamenl (Aristophanes), 19 Dec.
1923. Vinohrady Theatre, Prague, dir: K. Capek.

effectively summed up by a contemporary Czech critic:
As distinct from his contemporaries, who attempted to
create new design approaches purely of the stage, Capek alone
works by the opposite method and binds scenography to
modern painting, the problems of which he applies logically
even to stage design. 15

A fine balance between a painter's sense of color and
imagery and an architect's sense of spatial composition is
what is most impressive about the work of Frantisek
Muzika (1900-1974). Muzika's one hundred or so production designs include some that are based primarily on
painted flat surfaces, some that are almost purely
architectonic and lack color, and many that provide a
synthesis of the two approaches. In most cases, however,
one is aware of a moderation, a poise that gracefully
restrains a rich pictorial imagination. What is also apparent
is his ability to make a strong poetic statement with the
most Iimited means. There is much in his work that
suggests a fusion of Heythum and Feuerstein: the former's
lightness, economy, and spatial openness; the latter's
expressionistic imagery and stylistic purity. He shares with
both an aversion to literalism or illusionistic scenery.
Trained as a painter both in Prague and Paris, Muzika
came under the influence of the major forces in modern
art: expressionism, CUbism, surrealism. Formalism, a
talent for pure design, is a notable feature in his settings.
Toward the latter part of his association with the stage,
the surrealistic mode becomes increasingly apparent,
dominating his architectonic concern for stage space with

USITT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FALL,1975

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