Theatre Design & Technology - May 1973 - 60

BOOK REVIEWS-------THE SCENOGRAPHY OF JOSEF SVOBODA
by Jarka Burian
Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University
Press, 1971
ISBN 0-8195-4041-2; pp. xxii plus 202
$25.00
Jarka Burian stops just short of the assertion that in
the work of his subject, Josef Svoboda, there are mirrored
two essential qualities of Twentieth Century art: of
synthesis to represent the disintegration of those formal
barriers recognized by artists of past centuries; and of
kineticism. to reflect the relativity in our understanding
of where each of us stands with respect to his universe. Of
course, synthesis has always been inherent to theatre as a
form, even if most of us are picky about which separate
art forms may be combined to fit the formal definition
of theatre current at any moment.
So, it's a flawed assertion, and it is mine, not Burian's.
But I find it between the Iines he wrote about a genius at
work. When there appears a masterful analysis of a master
artist's work, there is cause for celebration. Publication of
The Scenography of Josef Svoboda is such an event, and I
celebrate it.
Burian's ability to work with Czech language materials
and to converse wi'th CSSR theatre people at home and in
their tongue has given him a heavy advantage over Western
critics like Denis Bablet, whose La Scene e I'immagine
(and a French translation titled Svoboda, both 1970) is
based on fewer secondary materials, less access to his subject, and is a more subjective, more personalized variety of
criticism than Burian's. These two critical works complement one another geographically, for almost any northern
or eastern European theatre person with $20.00 in train
fare can find a Svoboda design available in someone's
repertory. In the Americas, until the Fall of 1972, USITT
sponsored lecture and master cICl::'_ tour, the Metropolitan
Opera Carmen production, and this book, his work was
otherwise known largely to US designers through a few
magazine articles alld the Czech Pavilion's lumio-pyrotechnics at Montreal's 1967-68 Exposition. Bablet's French
language audience was ready for criticism; we needed a
comprehensive documentation of the designer's career to
date-and that is precisely what Burian has produced.
It is interesting to me that, should the U.S. have produced a Svoboda, the limitations of our labor union
system would have made such a beautifully illustrated
book as this impossible: picture taking of actual productions simply isn't possible here on the scale to which Josef
Svoboda and his most frequent photographer, Jaromir
Svoboda (no apparent relations), are accustomed. We have
so hamstrung the communications process with rules
protecting the labor rights of all concerned, that the right

to record what an actual production looked like is most
frequently given up by American designers for commercial theatre. (Svoboda himself found the problem in his
recent production of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera.)
The International Organization of Scenographers and
Theatre Technicians is attempting to isolate solutions to
this problem, which ultimately affects everyone working in
theatre. However r') 'Jrogress has so far been reported.
More happily, it is encouraging to note in this book
the regular progress in this country, of graphic documentation for scenery books over the half-centu ry marked by
Jones's Drawings for the Theatre (1925), Simonson's The
Stage Is Set (1932), Gorelik's New Theatres for Old
(1940) and through Mielziner's Designing for the Theatre
(1965). As the quality of offset lithography has recently
improved, designers have become more able to speak in
the graphic idiom they know better-with the single
eloquent example of Bobby Jones. Wesleyan University
Press has here provided more evidence for its claim to
primacy as the quality scenographer's publisher, a reputation built on books like The Theatre of Robert Edmond
Jones (1958), the English edition of the Bauhaus Book
Theatre of the Bauhaus (1961), Adolf Appia, Prophet of
the Modern Theatre (1968), Theatre Checklist: A Guide
to the Planning & Construction of Proscenium and Open
Stage Theatres (1969), and Samuel Phelps and the Sadler's
Wells Theatre (1971).
I especially respect Burian's one-paragraph personality
sketch:

"A man of medium stature, Svoboda gives an impression of restrained alertness, of energy banked and
well controlled. Occasionally, Svoboda's manner may
even convey an impression of mildness and a certain
remoteness, but such impressions are superficial and
finally misleading, for Svoboda is a man of glowing intensity once his interest is aroused and he warms to his
subject. Then his features become animated, his eyes
brighten, and his voice suddenly acquires added range
and expressiveness. With a spontaneous, intrinsically
histrionic flair he often proceeds to reinforce his verbal
account with dynamic gestures and movements as he
strives to communicate the precise, essential qual ities
of a given production and the concept it embodies.
Such moments reveal how deeply rooted in feeling and,
indeed, passion is Svoboda's creativity, and how important a role the intuitive plays in shaping his art," (p. 14)
We learn that although Svoboda has worked in 18-20
countries, predictably he feels most comfortable designing
at home in Prague, and that he feels his best work is done
there (p. 11). A bit less predictably, Burian reveals that
the designer's notable synthetic projection work is done
with one Prague director, Alfred Radok (since translated
to Sweden), and his kinetic scenery with another, the
presently suppressed Prague director, Otomar Krejca.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY. 1973

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