LOOKING BACK AT THE THEATRE PRODUCTION OF A SCENOGRAPHER, MUSICIAN AND FILM ARCHITECT TOMÁŠ BERKA

• Authors: Podmaková Dagmar
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Tomáš Berka connected the auditorium with the stage on several occasions. He made a distinctive mark in graphic design; his theatre posters are typical for their characteristic outlines and colouring (regardless of the linocut or offset technique). Based on selected productions from a total of over a hundred works, the study presents Berka’s contribution to Slovak scenography from the 1970s to 2005, when his last theatre work was recorded. Tomáš Berka is the only one among the stage designers who have also penetrated the world of music and, in recent decades, the international film industry. The study of his scenography completes the portrait of the stage designer’s work in Bratislava companies as it was unjustly marginalised also by foreign critics. While at the same time, several productions that he was engaged in which made an impact by their use of action scenography were produced in confined spaces of the petit stage of the former Divadlo na korze (Theatre on the Promenade), as well as in alternative non-theatre spaces. Tomáš Berka’s production of posters reflects the artist’s vision of society from the beginning of Normalisation, i.e. from the 1970s to the search for a path towards democracy in the first half of the 1990s.

Keywords

EN

TOMÁŠ BERKA; THEATRE SCENOGRAPHY; THEATRE POSTER; BOOK DESIGN; MUSIC; FILM; BRATISLAVA

• Publisher: Institute of Theatre and Arts, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenské divadlo (Slovak Theatre)
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 229 – 255

Contributors

author

Podmaková Dagmar

• Ústav divadelnej a filmovej vedy CVU SAV, Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 01 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Identifiers

DOI

10.31577/sd-2022-0016