Amfiteater, letn. 13, št. 1, 2025
UDK 792.07(437.3Praga)Rádl B.  
DOI 10.51937/Amfiteater-2025-1/78-96
Abstract
In the Library of the Theatre Institute in Prague, there are the so-called Rádl’s albums, 
scrapbooks with photographs from productions, dramatic texts, costume designs, clippings 
and inscriptions, which authentically describe the work of leading Czech interwar avant-
garde theatre artists. They are evidence of the period’s enchantment with improvisation, 
play, lightness and style that crossed all boundaries. This original source will shortly be 
presented as an excellent means of interpreting and correcting interpretations of the 
Czech interwar avant-garde, including the potential to show its greatest strengths, as well 
as its weaknesses and limitations.
Keywords: Czech theatre interwar avant-garde, Prague, Liberated Theatre (Osvobozené 
divadlo), Bedřich Rádl, Otto Rádl, scrapbook
Petra Ježková, PhD, is a theatre historian and editor, dealing with Czech theatre and 
culture in the 19
th
 century and the first half of the 20
th 
century. She has worked at the 
Czech Theatre Studies Department of the Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI) since 2007 and 
has been the head of the department since 2018. At the ATI, she is also the main guarantor 
of the project Czech Theatre Encyclopedia and the founder and manager of the book series 
Nota bene. Since 2024, she has been the editor-in-chief of the professional periodical 
Divadelní revue (Theatre Revue).
petra.jezkova@idu.cz
78

A Scrapbook as an Original Source of 
Research on the Czech Interwar Theatre 
Avant-Garde
Petra Ježková  
Department for Czech Theatre Studies, Arts and Theatre Institute, Prague
In recent years, we can observe a significant surge of interest in the avant-garde, a 
surge happening not only in the Czech Republic nor only in theatre.
1
 In the Czech 
environment, this conjuncture of returns to the avant-garde could be documented by 
a number of exhibitions, projects, grants, studies and books on this topic.
As far as published books are concerned, let us name at least a few essential authors 
or titles on behalf of all the others. These are the publications published as part of the 
international project Rozlomená doba 1908–1928 (The Fractured Era 1908–1928), under 
the auspices of the European Union and the Ministries of Culture of the Czech Republic, 
Poland, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Austria, which presents the world of the Central 
European avant-garde at the time of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and 
the emergence of the successor states. The book by editor Karel Srp, Rozlomená doba 
1908–1928: Avantgardy ve střední Evropě (The Fractured Era 1908–1928: Avant-Gardes in 
Central Europe, 2018, conceptualised by Lenka Bydžovská), presents the diversity in the 
works of leading world-famous artists from Central Europe. Mariana Orawczak Kunešová 
examines the relationship between the Czech and French avant-garde. At the same 
time, Eva Šlaisová looks at the points of contact between the avant-garde, structuralism, 
entography and entology. They both presented at the conference, The Historical Avant-
Garde in the European Context, and contributed to the thematic issue of Theatralia (2022). 
Among the book titles focused on the Czech interwar artistic environment, let us mention 
the book Teige: Kapitán avantgardy (Teige: Captain of the Avant-Garde; 2016) by Rea 
Michalová, an exhibition with a catalogue dedicated to one of the leading stage designers 
of the Liberated Theatre, Antonín Heythum, prepared by Vojtěch Poláček, Jakub Potůček 
and Vendula Potůčková Jurášová (2018), as well as a monograph on the same subject with 
the same title by Vlasta Koubská and Radomíra Sedláková (2022). Also in that year, the 
1 The peer-reviewed article was written on the basis of institutional support for the long-term conceptual development of 
the research organisation Arts and Theatre Institute (IP DKRVO) provided by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
79

published monograph Osvobozené divadlo: Na vlnách Devětsilu (Liberated Theatre: On the 
Waves of the Devětsil [Butterbur], 2022) by Andrea Jochmanová and Ladislava Petišková. 
Slightly older, but crucial, was the interdisciplinary university project led by Jan Wiendel 
and Josef Vojvodík and completed with the publication Heslář české avantgardy: Estetické 
koncepty a proměny uměleckých postupů v letech 1908–1958 (Czech Avant-Garde Entries: 
Aesthetic Concepts and Transformations of Artistic Practices in the Years 1908–1958, 2011). 
Helena Spurná focused on the work of specific personalities of the Czech theatre avant-
garde in her books Emil František Burian a jeho cesty za operou ( Emil František Burian 
and his expeditions to the opera, 2014) and Divadelní režisér a člověk Oldřich Stibor (1901–
1943) (The Theatre Director and Man Oldřich Stibor (1901–1943), 2015).
In general, these projects, probes and studies fail to avoid one not incomprehensible 
but, on the contrary, generally valid characteristic of a deep scientific preoccupation 
with a topic: when delving into the subject of their interest, they are often unwilling 
to see its limits, to consider it in the context of other concurrent phenomena. If we 
think about theatre, then, for example, that means in an unbiased comparison with 
concurrent events on the official Czech mainstage. Nor is it necessary or fair to 
judge the phenomena retrospectively in a dichotomy: new–original–better versus 
old–classic–worse. This is a consequence of a particular ahistorical perspective. And 
a retrospective classification, in which we often overestimate “progressiveness” as 
a quality (because we already know what followed) and thus tend to overestimate 
some past phenomena, giving them undue dominance and superiority.
With this deliberately provocative introduction, I do not want to deny the undeniable 
role and contribution of avant-garde artistic outbursts. I will try to point out some 
generalisable qualities, as well as the real limitations of key Czech avant-garde theatre 
experiments, using only one specific material.
The material that I want to present as a very telling testimony of the Czech interwar 
theatrical avant-garde is the so-called Rádl’s albums, stored in the Library of the 
Theatre Institute in Prague.
It is very authentic material, each presented in the form of a kind of scrapbook, as I 
referred to them in the title of my study. They contain a variety of material, including 
photographs, clippings, costume sketches, scenes, posters, theatre signs, texts, scripts, 
etc. It is a kind of private archive of various relics and traces of the young theatre 
collective’s activities, in three never-published volumes. 
The brothers Otto (1902–1965) and Bedřich (1905–1981) Rádl
2
 were not, like many 
2 For a detailed biographical information, including lists of roles, stage directions, set designs and documents of the Rádl 
brothers and an inventory of sources and literature, see the entry in the Czech Theatre Encyclopedia. Available online: 
https://encyklopedie.idu.cz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=204:radl-bedrich&Itemid=111&lang=cs.
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other creative personalities from the Czech theatre avant-garde, just theatre people, 
yet – and perhaps because of this – their contribution and influence in this direction 
was very significant.
Both graduated in law; they were also valuable to the theatre in this respect (among 
other things, they helped with the operational agenda, provided minor legal 
services and worked as clerks in the theatre office). In addition to performing in 
avant-garde theatre productions as actors (the older Otto also graduated from the 
acting conservatory, but the more active and more frequently cast was the typically 
expressive, lanky, slender, dandyish Bedřich – see Figures 1 and 2), they were 
involved in journalism, film, film journalism, photography and set design. This artistic 
syncretism is very characteristic of the creators of the Czech theatre avant-garde and 
beyond. Although theatre and film were initially regarded as competitors, in reality, 
one art form did not pose a threat to the other, as some theorists and publicists 
feared under the influence of the rapid development and great reach of film. Instead, 
they became a source of mutually productive inspiration, which the avant-gardists 
understood very well and very quickly (I am referring here to the practices of the 
grotesque, strong stylisation and aestheticisation of artistic expression).
Figure 1 Figure 2
The newly diversified, rapidly changing nature of artistic production and the situation 
of the theatre has been consistently addressed by myself and critical Czech figures, 
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especially Václav Tille. In his opinion, the theatre had to adapt creatively to the new 
conditions to maintain the favour of the audience and the potential to address the 
audience with unique artistic performances in the increasingly intense competition 
of popular genres, new types of media (film, radio) and mass entertainment 
(professional sports). Like another big critical personality, František Xaver Šalda, 
he was therefore open to new art forms that abandoned the traditional emphasis 
on mere words. He also asked himself what the uniqueness of theatre art was in 
comparison to new media. He devoted a number of reflections to the relationship 
between cinema and theatre, exploring how this relationship would evolve under the 
pressures of mass entertainment and the cult of star actors. He saw the specificity 
of theatre and the guarantee that it would not disappear because of cinema in the 
living relationship between stage and auditorium, between the unique representation 
of life on stage and the life experiences of the audience. Film is more perfect and 
flexible in its technical means. However, it cannot express life so powerfully because 
it is based on mechanical repetition. Therefore, according to Tille, it is useless for 
the theatre to compete with film and vice versa. Tille, with his extraordinary insight 
and the personality of a globetrotter, among other things, developed the contacts of 
the Czech theatre avant-garde with world theatre artists (Alexander Tairov, Gaston 
Baty, Max Reinhardt, etc.). At the same time, he was precisely the type of theatre critic 
and theorist who was able to perceive the avant-garde in the context of the whole 
breadth of contemporary theatre production, including the so-called mainstream. For 
example, he consistently reflected on the French scenes, which he was able to follow 
en bloc: he knew and mediated for the Czech milieu both the production of Comédie-
Française and contemporary French cabaret. Later, he was attracted to Russian avant-
garde theatre.
It is Tille’s critical thinking and writing about theatre that well illustrates what I 
suggested in the introduction. We can see this through a selection of his critical 
comparative reflections on theatre and his review Kouzelná moc divadla (The Magic 
Power of Theatre): In the Czech interwar theatre, alongside the avant-garde scenes 
and their outbursts, which are generally treated in the abovementioned monographs 
and publications with an enthusiastic nod to the avant-garde as the only good and vital 
theatre, there were not only ossified, conservative and stale productions. At the same 
time, for example, Karel Hugo Hilar was directing remarkable productions of ancient 
drama and Shakespeare at the National Theatre (cf. Tille 2007). And in this context, 
we can better see and understand the nature of avant-garde experiments. All this 
is certainly very substantial and refreshing (even in a departure from a text-centric 
understanding of theatre) but, at the same time, also – in terms of the possibilities 
of the depth of the content conveyed – in a sense limited, not only the possible and 
relevant, and not inexhaustible.
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Of course, not only Václav Tille, but other critics of the time were also able to overlook 
and view Czech interwar theatre in its full range of manifestations (partly also 
František Xaver Šalda, Jindřich Vodák, Otokar Fischer, Josef Träger, Antonín Matěj 
Píša, Antonín Martin Brousil, Miroslav Rutte, etc.). We have deliberately chosen 
Tille to support our argument because he had the greatest insight and the broadest 
perspective of all.
But let’s return to the specifics of the material we want to present as a unique source 
for the Czech interwar avant-garde theatre research. 
The brothers Otto and Bedřich Rádl connected their youthful theatrical enthusiasm 
to the most important and successful Czech interwar avant-garde scene, Osvobozené 
divadlo (Liberated Theatre). Otto Rádl was also a keen photographer and photographed 
the theatre in a very specific way. These were unembellished, spontaneous images, 
which, thanks to the inclusion of the photographer in the artistic team and process, 
breathe with an authentic atmosphere (see Figures 3, 4 and 5). Three voluminous 
albums entitled “Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part 1 – From the Beginnings 
[i.e. February 1926] to 30 June 1927”, “Part 2 – From Autumn 1927 to the end of 
Spring 1930” and “Part 3 – From Autumn 1930 to 1938” document – as their titles 
suggest – the activities of the leading Czech avant-garde scene from its beginnings to 
the internal split among its leading artists and even further, until the theatre’s demise 
as a result of political events after the Munich Agreement. Although I will not go into 
details here about the specific names and their creative approaches, I will mention 
briefly that the initial experimental character of the scene was determined by the 
mutually very different theorising directors, Jiří Frejka and Jindřich Honzl, and then by 
the increasingly popular creative duo of comedians, Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich (in 
tandem with composer Jaroslav Ježek), whose original, initially comic and then, with 
the sociopolitical developments in Central Europe, increasingly satirical productions 
eventually dominated the theatre.
One of the key features of the first seasons of the avant-garde scene that I want to 
highlight in the present authentic material, and which I think has wider validity, is the 
juvenile, youthful character of this avant-garde art.
The Rádl brothers were not much more than twenty years old at the time of these 
albums – twenty-one and twenty-four years old, to be precise (and along with them, 
their other generational contemporaries). The group came together during the high 
school years of the individual members.
This is one of the essential aspects to be considered: As historiographers, we 
often tend to canonise avant-garde theatrical explorations and to hold them up as 
something superior, sophisticated and polished. Not that this is entirely inconsistent 
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with or exclusive of the aforementioned youth; I just want to draw attention to 
this circumstance, also evident in the material presented here. It is quite apparent 
from it that these were youthful attempts with all that entails. Thus, they exhibited 
as characteristic features a natural lightness, lightness of touch, unintentionality, 
situationality, improvisation and playfulness.
Figure 3 Figure 4
Historiographers can (and often do) overinterpret something that could have been 
the result of circumstances, a situation or an improvisation. An example of this would 
be the brilliant costume of the actress Světla Svozilová, who stood in at the last minute 
for an indisposed colleague, and, lacking a costume, hastily sewed a dress out of a 
piano cover (see Figure 6).
Another generally valid specific feature of the work of not only this avant-garde scene 
but also in the entire theatrical avant-garde, is the abovementioned inherent syncretism, 
combining naturally different kinds of art into one changeable, free and playful form. 
This feature is quite clear from the sketches, manuscripts and photographs captured 
directly by the actors themselves and pasted into the albums under discussion.
What is significant here is the interconnection of theatrical creation with dance-
movement, music and visual arts, to such an extent that it is almost impossible, even 
out of place, to talk about drama or other theatrical genres.
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The collaboration between choreographers and dancers was essential. One of the 
most outstanding ones was Mira Holzbachová. An important representative of Czech 
expressive dance, she continuously enriched her movement expression under the 
influence of artistic impulses of contemporary dance and artistic movements, starting 
with expressionism. Her acting creations corresponded to the ideas of Jiří Frejka and 
Jindřich Honzl on biomechanical acting. As a choreographer, Holzbachová contributed 
to the formation of the staging style of the avant-garde in accordance with its 
constructivist and poetic premises. The perceptive team and laboratory nature of the 
early days of the Liberated Theatre also allowed her to present her own conception 
of dance mime and, in her time, completely original improvised “dance evolutions” 
(see Figures 7 and 8). The theatre scholar Ladislava Petišková aptly summed up the 
contemporary reception of these creations, which the audience often did not know 
how to handle; if they were convincing (far from convincing for everyone), it was 
mainly because the charismatic creator and performer herself was convinced of them: 
“She gave the impression that she was dancing just for fun” (Jochmanová – Petišková 
108). However, a number of dancers and choreographers collaborated with the stage, 
including choreographers Jarmila Kröschlová and Milča Mayerová.
Figure 5 Figure 6
Another related feature of these avant-garde attempts was the increased self-
reflection and attempts at theoretical grasp of their own artistic work compared 
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to the creators of the official scenes. This is especially true of the aforementioned 
leading personalities in the position of director and dramaturg (Honzl and Frejka); 
Holzbachová also made sporadic attempts to theoretically grasp her own conception 
of dance art. For example, she was involved in the lecture series of the Liberated 
Theatre for the public with her reflection entitled Taneční gymnastika a její jevištní 
užití (Dance Gymnastics and Its Stage Use, 1926). 
Figure 7 Figure 8
As far as the artists collaborating with the Liberated Theatre were concerned, these 
were often the first attempts of later famous, big names. And they also had all the 
features of such “first attempts”. In the albums, for example, the costume designs 
of Otakar Mrkvička, who later became a stage designer on leading representative 
stages, are captured through his original drawings. He collaborated on them with 
one of the most prominent and inspiring personalities of the Czech avant-garde, the 
multi-talented theorist Karel Teige, who was rightly called “the captain of the Czech 
avant-garde” in art historian Rea Michalová’s latest compendium (Michalová). The 
drawings bear the aforementioned playfulness, lightness, unbridled freedom of 
creation and enthusiasm for stylisation (see Figures 9, 10, 11, 12). At the same time, 
these characteristics and unquestionable qualities are also their maxims. Apart 
from the aforementioned avant-garde artists, Antonín Heythum, Adolf Hoffmeister, 
Otakar Mrkvička, Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen collaborated with the Liberated 
Theatre in their creative beginnings.  
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To a large extent, the musical component also played a dominant and sometimes 
completely determining role. The composers Miroslav Ponc and Karel Šrom 
collaborated with the Liberated Theatre. Emil František Burian was a prominent actor 
and musician. The jazz musician Jaroslav Ježek later completed the creative tandem 
with the comic duo of Jiří Voskovec and Jiří Werich.
Figure 9 Figure 10
All these artistic components completed the multifaceted, synthetic and original 
theatrical expression of the Liberated Theatre. The Rádl albums under discussion, in 
their entirety, mirror very well the obvious, overarching philosophical underpinnings 
of this young theatre art. The Liberated Theatre was founded as a theatre section 
of the avant-garde group Devětsil (Butterbur), made up of writers and poets, 
artists and theorists. The artistic direction they manifested and then represented 
declaratively was called poeticism (poetismus). It originated in the 1920s and never 
spread beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia. Poeticism did not want to be merely a 
literary programme but had the ambition of becoming a way of looking at life, to be 
a poem. The goal of poeticism was complete freedom from politics and an optimistic 
view of the world. Hence, its style develops lyricism, playfulness and lightness of 
touch (punctuation was removed in literature, for example).
In line with this were the main staging principles of the first seasons of the Liberated 
87

Theatre, which were the synthetic nature of the actor’s performance, the denial of 
illusory realism and decorativism, the emphasis on the functionality of all stage elements 
in relation to the actor’s expression, and the dominance of directorial direction. They 
were reflected in the non-literary lyrical conception of the production as an authorial 
statement of the director-poet, rejecting the Aristotelian definition of the dramatic and 
speaking to the audience in the same spirit as the poets of Devětsil (Butterbur), whose 
works were, moreover, numerously represented in the repertoire of the theatre (for 
example, Vítězslav Nezval, Vladislav Vančura and others). Alongside them, the works of 
the French precursors of the avant-garde (Guillaume Apollinaire: The Breasts of Tiresias, 
1927; Alfréd Jarry: King Ubu, 1928) and its contemporaries (Yvan Goll: Methuselah, 
1927; Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes: The Mute Canary, 1926; The Peruvian Hangman, 
1929; Jean Cocteau: Orpheus, 1928). In them, the richness of the bold, mutually disparate 
stage metaphors, whose sequence shaped the poetic construction of the productions, 
was fully unleashed (Čeporanová, Scherl and Just 2000).
Figure 11 Figure 12
Part of this playfulness was also a parody of the staging tradition and the realistic and 
naturalistic tendencies that had dominated the acting and set design of the official theatre 
houses up to that time. The comic duo of Jiří Voskovec and Jiří Werich (see Figure 13) 
impaled the naturalistic acting convention on the barb of satire in their famous Vest 
88

Pocket Revue. However, the light-hearted, playful atmosphere of the first productions, full 
of humour and detachment (e.g., in The Breasts of Tiresias), wore off rather quickly. By the 
end of the 1920s, the steamy horrors of the destructive outpourings of the subconscious 
began to appear in productions (e.g., in The Peruvian Hangman). In the context of social-
political developments in Europe, the humour of the comic duo V + W became increasingly 
satirical and therefore political. Poeticism on the theatre had, of necessity, only a yuppie 
life. At the same time, it certainly inspired many later reminiscences.
Figure 13
There is no doubt that the avant-garde brought refreshing impulses to European 
theatre, undoubtedly in response to the horrors of World War I, which fundamentally 
shook the certainties of human existence. That is why it was what it was – light-footed, 
reckless, playful, experimental, unencumbered, free, seemingly almost limitless. But 
for all the fascination and sympathy that is rightly its own, it would be a disservice 
to uncritically exalt and overestimate its manifestations without acknowledging that 
it also had its limits. It was capable, as youth is, of making indelible suggestions, but 
these often fell short of deeper content. And therefore, it had to be transformed in 
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later stages, as its creators matured and gradually turned to more intimate, classical 
and serious formats and forms. 
In the environment of the Czech interwar theatre avant-garde, the process of 
maturation and ageing of creators and forms met with artistic stagnation and the 
crisis of the large official stages. At the end of the 20
th
 century, theatre artists from 
both camps felt the possibility of mutual enrichment. There was a kind of symbiosis. 
The avant-garde was becoming dangerously hampered in the realisation of its aims by 
the restriction to small venues of an experimental nature and was also beginning to 
suffer from the traits of dilettantism which amateur or semi-professional operation 
necessarily entailed. The leading creators of the official scenes – at least the artistic 
personalities who excelled above the average – were again beginning to realise that the 
official theatre was in danger of stagnation (Scherl 206).
Therefore, the intention to use avant-garde impulses as rejuvenating injections 
gradually matured. Studio stages were set up at the large stone stages in the Czech 
theatre centres of Prague, Brno and Ostrava, with artists from avant-garde small 
stages invited to lead them.
90

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[Liberated Theatre: On the Waves of the Devětsil (Butterbur)]. Janáčkova akademie 
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ústav, 2022.
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1927, II. část: Od podzimu 1927 do konce jara 1930, III. část: Od podzimu 1930 do 
roku 1938) [Liberated Theatre. Documentation (Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 
June 1927, Part II: From Autumn 1927 to the End of Spring 1930, Part III: From 
Autumn 1930 to 1938)], typescript/scrapbook stored at Library of the Theatre 
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divadla IV. (History of Czech Theatre IV), Academia, 1983, pp. 206–439.
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—.  Divadelní režisér a člověk Oldřich Stibor (1901–1943) [Theatre Director and Man 
Oldřich Stibor (1901–1943)]. Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2015.
Čeporanová, Drahomíra, Adolf Scherl and Vladimir Just. “Osvobozené divadlo 
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Knopp. Divadelní ústav, 2007.
Vojvodík, Josef, and Jan Wiendl, Jan, editors. Heslář české avantgardy. Estetické 
koncepty a proměny uměleckých postupů v letech 1908–1958 [Czech Avant-Garde 
Entries: Aesthetic Concepts and Changes in Artistic Practices in the Years 1908–
1958). FF UK, Togga, 2011. 
Figures
Fig. 1 and 2
Bedřich Rádl as Dandy (Vítězslav Nezval: Madrigal, Liberated Theatre, 1926), 
photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated 
Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961. 
Fig. 3
Jarmila Horáková as the chambermaid Klaudina, Miroslava Holzbachová as Angela and 
Jindřich Vacín as the lover Klitandr (Molière: Cirkus Dandin, Liberated Theatre, 1926), 
photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated 
Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
 Fig. 4
Stanislav Neumann as the servant Lubin and Jarmila Horáková as the maid 
(Molière: Cirkus Dandin, Liberated Theatre, 1926), photographer B. Rádl. Library of 
the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From 
the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
Fig. 5
Lola Skrbková as Colombina, behind her Bedřich Rádl as Dandy, Jarmila Svatá on 
the swing, Jindřich Vacín in black leotard below, Věra Hlavatá as Hortensie behind 
92

him, Saša Machov on the right (Vítězslav Nezval: Madrigal, Liberated Theatre, 1926), 
photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated 
Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
Fig. 6
Světla Svozilová as the cashier Veronika (Yvan Goll: Insurance against suicide Madrigal, 
Liberated Theatre, 1927), photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, 
Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 
June 1927, typescript, 1961.
Fig. 7 and 8
Mira Holzbachová during her typical dance evolutions in Liberated Theatre, 
photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated 
Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
Fig. 9 and 10
The costume and mask design for the character Presto was the work of Otakar 
Mrkvička and Karel Teige (Guillaume Apollinaire: The Breasts of Tiresias, Liberated 
Theatre, 1927), photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. 
Rádl: Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, 
typescript, 1961.
Fig. 11
The costume and mask design for the character Kiosk was the work of Otakar 
Mrkvička and Karel Teige (Guillaume Apollinaire: The Breasts of Tiresias, Liberated 
Theatre, 1927), photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. 
Rádl: Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, 
typescript, 1961.
Fig. 12
Otakar Mrkvička and Karel Teige – costume design of Dr. Kulečník (Yvan Goll: Insurance 
Against Suicide Madrigal, Liberated Theatre, 1927), photographer B. Rádl. Library of 
the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From 
the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
Fig. 13
Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich parody in a naturalistic way acting and staging a la 
Ibsen (Jiří Voskovec – Jan Werich: Vest Pocket Revue, Liberated Theatre, 1927), 
photographer B. Rádl. Library of the Theatre Institute, Prague, B. Rádl: Liberated 
Theatre. Documentation. Part I: From the Beginnings to 30 June 1927, typescript, 1961.
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Amfiteater, letn. 13, št. 1, 2025
UDK 792.07(437.3Praga)Rádl B.  
DOI 10.51937/Amfiteater-2025-1/78-96
Povzetek
V Knjižnici Gledališkega inštituta v Pragi hranijo tako imenovane Rádlove albume – zvezke 
s kolaži, v katerih najdemo fotografije gledaliških predstav, dramska besedila, kostumske 
skice, izrezke iz časopisov in zapise. Ponujajo nam avtentičen vpogled v način dela vodilnih 
predstavnikov češke medvojne gledališke avantgarde. V njih se odraža navdušenje nad 
improvizacijo, igro, lahkotnostjo in slogom, ki preči vsakršne meje. Članek na kratko 
predstavi to izvirno referenco kot odličen vir za razlago češke medvojne avantgarde, pa 
tudi za korekcijo njenih obstoječih interpretacij, saj osvetljuje njene najmočnejše vidike, pa 
tudi šibke točke in omejitve.
Ključne besede: češka medvojna gledališka avantgarda, Praga, Osvobojeno gledališče 
(Osvobozené divadlo), Bedřich Rádl, Otto Rádl, kolažni album
Dr. Petra Ježková je gledališka zgodovinarka in urednica, ki proučuje češko gledališče in 
kulturo 19. ter prve polovice 20. stoletja. Od leta 2007 je zaposlena na Oddelku za študije 
češkega gledališča na Umetnostnem in gledališkem inštitutu v Pragi (ATI), kjer je glavna 
nosilka projekta Enciklopedija češkega gledališča. Je pobudnica in vodja knjižne zbirke Nota 
bene. Od leta 2018 je vodja omenjenega oddelka, od leta 2024 pa tudi glavna urednica 
strokovne publikacije Divadelní revue (Gledališka revija).
petra.jezkova@idu.cz
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Kolažni album kot izvirni vir za raziskovanje 
češke medvojne gledališke avantgarde
Petra Ježková  
Oddelek za študije češkega gledališča, Umetnostni in gledališki inštitut, Praga
V zadnjih letih je opazen precejšen razmah zanimanja za avantgardo – ne le na Češkem 
in ne le v gledališču. V češkem prostoru se porast vračanja k avantgardi odraža v 
obliki številnih razstav, projektov, štipendij, razprav in knjig na to temo. V splošnem 
pa se nam v tovrstnih projektih, poglobljenih študijah in raziskavah pogosto ne uspe 
izogniti nečemu, kar pravzaprav niti ni nenavadno, temveč ravno nasprotno – splošno 
značilno za intenzivno znanstveno proučevanje: ob poglobitvi v določeno tematiko si 
neradi priznamo njene omejitve oziroma je ne umestimo v kontekst drugih pojavov 
njenega časa. Na gledališkem področju bi to denimo lahko pomenilo nepristransko 
primerjavo z dogajanjem na uradnih čeških institucionalnih odrih. Prav tako ni treba 
in tudi ne bi bilo pošteno, da bi pojave retrospektivno ocenjevali z dihotomijo tipa: 
»novo – izvirno – boljše« proti »staro – klasično – slabše«. Tovrstni pristop temelji na 
določeni ahistorični drži. Pri tistih retrospektivnih klasifikacijah, kjer »naprednost« 
pogosto precenjujemo kot kvaliteto (predvsem zato, ker že poznamo nadaljnji razvoj 
dogodkov), pa se nekaterim preteklim pojavom neupravičeno pripisujeta vodilna 
vloga in superiornost.
Namen mojega članka ni zanikati neizpodbitne vloge in prispevka razcvetov 
avantgardne umetniške ustvarjalnosti. Želim le opozoriti na nekatere splošno 
prisotne značilnosti pa tudi dejanske omejitve ključnih eksperimentov češke 
medvojne gledališke avantgarde, in sicer na podlagi specifičnega vira – tako 
imenovanih Rádlovih albumov, ki jih hranijo v Knjižnici Gledališkega inštituta v Pragi. 
Gre za izredno avtentično gradivo v obliki nekakšnih kolažnih albumov. Ti vsebujejo 
raznolik material, ki ga sestavljajo fotografije, izrezki iz tiskovin, kostumske skice, 
scene, plakati, gledališki napisi, besedila, scenariji ipd. Gre za nekakšen zasebni arhiv 
najrazličnejših ostankov in sledi dejavnosti mladega gledališkega kolektiva, in sicer v 
treh neobjavljenih zvezkih. Brata Otto in Bedřich Rádl sta se v mladostnem navdušenju 
nad gledališčem povezala z najpomembnejšim in najuspešnejšim prizoriščem češke 
medvojne avantgarde – Osvobojenim gledališčem (Osvobozené divadlo). Otto Rádl je 
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bil tudi navdušen fotograf, ki je gledališče svojstveno ujel v neposredne, spontano 
nastale podobe, iz katerih zaradi njegove vključenosti v umetniški kolektiv in proces 
veje pristno vzdušje.
Ni dvoma, da je avantgarda prinesla osvežujoče impulze v evropsko gledališče, 
zagotovo kot odziv na grozote prve svetovne vojne, ki je do temeljev pretresla gotovosti 
človeškega obstoja. Zato je tudi bila takšna, kot je bila – lahkotna, zaletava, igriva, 
eksperimentalna, nebrzdana, svobodna, na videz skoraj brez mej. Kljub navdušenju 
in priznanju, ki sta vsekakor upravičena, pa nekritično poveličevanje in precenjevanje 
njenih manifestacij ni na mestu, ne da bi priznali, da je imela tudi svoje omejitve. Tako 
kot mladost je tudi avantgarda lahko ponudila nepozabne sugestije, a ji je pri tem 
pogosto zmanjkalo globljih vsebin. Zato se je v poznejših fazah preobrazila, saj so 
njeni ustvarjalci zoreli in se sčasoma usmerili v bolj intimne, klasične in resne oblike.
Na področju češke medvojne gledališke avantgarde je proces zorenja in staranja 
ustvarjalcev ter ustvarjalnih oblik sovpadel z umetniško stagnacijo in krizo velikih 
institucionalnih odrov. Ob koncu 20. stoletja so gledališčniki obeh taborov začutili, 
da bi se lahko medsebojno obogatili; prišlo je do nekakšne simbioze. Avantgardo so 
pri uresničevanju ambicij namreč začele nevarno ovirati prostorske in organizacijske 
omejitve manjših eksperimentalnih prizorišč pa tudi elementi diletantizma, ki se 
jim pri amaterskem ali polprofesionalnem delovanju ni mogoče izogniti. Vodilni 
ustvarjalci na velikih institucionalnih odrih pa so pričeli spoznavati, da stagnacija 
ponovno ogroža tudi uradno gledališče. Tako je zlagoma dozorela zamisel, da bi za 
pomladitveno injekcijo uporabili avantgardne impulze. V največjih čeških gledaliških 
središčih – v Pragi, Brnu in Ostravi – so velikim odrom začeli dodajati tudi studijske, 
njihovo vodstvo pa zaupali umetnikom z manjših avantgardnih prizorišč.
Prevedla Urška Daly
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