In connection with the annual theme of "Faust", a commission from Oskar Schlemmer for the stage design for Christian Dietrich Grabbe's play "Don Juan and Faust" will be presented at the Bauhaus Museum Weimar. It was designed by the Bauhaus master in 1925 especially for the German National Theater Weimar.
The play "Don Juan and Faust", a drama of ideas written in 1828 with which Christian Dietrich Grabbe wanted to outdo Goethe's "Faust", was performed on the stage of the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar from February 26, 1925. 100 years later, there is now an exciting opportunity to get to know one of Oskar Schlemmer's few commissioned works for the spoken stage. The Bauhaus master and director of the Bühnenwerkstatt developed a stage design that deals with the contrasting worlds of Don Juan and Faust.
Oskar Schlemmer Montblanc. Magic Castle of Faust, 1925 Watercolor, ink, gouache, gold and silver bronze and collage of color treated glossy paper, on watercolor paper, Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung der Universität zu Köln
The play is impressively presented to the audience by means of an abstract, reduced design in the spirit of the Bauhaus. Schlemmers designed innovative stage sets with structures made of simple geometric shapes, surfaces structured by colors, sparse decorations and a lighting direction that was unusual for the time. As the Bauhaus was about to leave Weimar at the time of the performance due to political disputes, Schlemmer called his stage work for the Nationaltheater his "farewell debut".
Today, Oskar Schlemmer is best known for his famous "Triadic Ballet", which premiered in Stuttgart in 1922 and was also performed at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar in 1923. Schlemmer intended to reform the stage of his time through dance and from the point of view of artistic creation with form and color in relation to space.
March 22 to November 3, 2025
