Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1975 - 22

devoted most of his efforts to teaching industrial arts
and design and to innovative projects in urban
planning and conservation. From 1942 to 1952 he
taught at major schools like California Institute of
Technology, Syracuse University, Columbia, and
Harvard.
Heythum's particular signature in stage design is
a remarkable economy of expression, a feeling for
open space defined by a minimum of structural
members, and an abundant store of wit and gaiety.
Although he was highly responsive to the element of
color in stage design, he is, in almost all other
respects, the antithesis of the designer as painter. It
is easy to label much of his work as constructivistic,
but his use of color, varied and occasionally graceful
forms, and humorous accent is incongruous with the
strict models of that movement. By the same token,
the geometrical, structural purity of his work as well
as its airiness are in striking contrast with most of
Hofman's and Feuerstein's work. On the other hand,
Heythum's designs rarely achieve the power of
Hofman's best efforts or the emotive depth and
texture of Feuerstein's.
Writing in 1932, Heythum defined his attitude
toward the problematics of his vocation. Like many
others, including Hofman, he identified space rather
than scene painting as the essential element of a
stage setting. True scene painting, according to
Heythum, lies in music and mainly lighting. His
sUbsequent remarks clarify his particular view and
methods:
Theatre is a world unto itself. Real things do not belong on
stage, for the stage has its own scale, unlike that of real life.
Theatre asks for pure settings - that is, a spatial montage of
objects .... ln the meantime, the traditional stage inventory
needs to be adapted. We remove the canvas from flats and
leave the empty, sight-conducive wooden frames. We wash off
the pictures painted on drops and let them function as cloth,
velvet, curtains, what they really are .... We use lighting not
merely to illuminate the stage but to divide it spatially. We use
stage machinery to make the setting mobile, as a direct part of
the action. The turntable turns as part of the play and the
frontal set is revitalized by a masterful play-in-space, or spatial
play. 12

Heythum's setting for O'Neill's Desire Under the
Elms (Figure 21), Prague 1925, was often reproduced
in theatre publications. Its skeletal framework allows
for the maximum of visible movement, simultaneous
action, and open, airy design. Although it closely
follows O'Neill's own stage directions, it eliminates
virtually all elements of solid surface.
Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae (Figure 22),
Prague 1926, shows one of Heythum's most definitive constructivist adaptations. Extremely abstract, a
loose collection of steps, scaffolds, ladders and
frames of unfinished wood painted a bright red
against a white background, it is a setting at its most

Fig. 21. A. Heythum, Desire Under the Elms (O'Neill), 3 Mar.
1925, Estates Theatre, Prague, dir: K. Dostal.

Fig. 22. A Heythum, Thesmophoriazusae (Aristophanes), 9 Jan.
1926, Theatre of Youth, Prague, dir: J. Frejka.

functional and non-representational. Additional distinctive touches are the contrasting accents of
repeated circles (a hoop-swing and a painted bull's
target), a small Chinese lantern, and a dangling
rope, all of which offset the severe plainness of the
setting. Very similar to this set were Heythum's
creations for Moliere's Georges Dandin (retitled
Circus Dandin by its Prague director, Jirr Frejka,
1925) and Ribbemont-Dessaignes' Mute Canary
(Prague 1926), all of these productions being among
the earliest efforts of the Liberated Theatre before
the arrival of Voskovec and Werich.
Another of Heythum's comments
further rationale of his method:

provides

The stage in today's theatre is a show case, an eternal
temporary expedient which is conducive to painter's errors
struggling with the three-dimensionality of the stage. The
fundamental requirement is that the structure of the setting
satisfy the conditions of space, to which are joined the
dimensions of time and the actor's movement in space. The
construction of the setting must limit itself to the precise,
theatrically effective, and feasible solution of spatial environment, which must not overwhelm or distort the function of
movement. 13

A modification of the extreme austerity of the

USIIT

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER. 1975

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