CASSANDRE by Roland Mouron, Estate of A.M.CASSANDRE

A.M.CASSANDRE's theatrical universe represents a major yet often overlooked aspect of his work, overshadowed by his famous advertising posters. This visual genius profoundly influenced French scenography during the interwar period, merging avant-garde concepts with function through his characteristic mathematical precision.

 

Portrait of a Complete Artist

 

Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, known as A.M.CASSANDRE (1901-1968), is primarily recognized as one of the masters of modern poster design. Born in Ukraine to a French family, he received multidisciplinary training in Paris between the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. This versatility nourished his scenographic vision, where graphic arts, architecture, and dramaturgy converged.

Theater became his laboratory for total expression, moving beyond the mere conception of promotional posters to penetrate the very heart of staging. His revolutionary approach was based on an architectural conception of scenic space, which he considered a dynamic volume, a "living organism" responding to dramaturgical demands.

 

Decisive Collaborations with Louis Jouvet

 

The meeting of Louis Jouvet, a master of modern stage direction, and A.M.CASSANDRE, the inventor of a radical visual language, marks a turning point in the history of French stage design. Their association, which began in the early 1930s, was brief yet decisive, giving rise to a series of emblematic productions where visual aesthetics became a dramatic language in its own right. Together, they helped establish scenography as a central component of the theatrical process — a space of thought, rhythm, and meaning, far beyond mere illustration.

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1. Context of the Encounter: Between Theatre and Modernity

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When Cassandre began his collaboration with Louis Jouvet at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in 1933, he was already recognized as one of Europe’s foremost poster artists. Jouvet, for his part, was breaking away from naturalist traditions to develop a more stylized and intellectual form of theatre, particularly through his close partnership with playwright Jean Giraudoux, whose texts he had been staging since 1928.

This context explains the natural convergence of these two artists:

• Jouvet sought a scenography that would serve the dramatic idea rather than merely reproduce it.

• Cassandre aimed to transpose into theatre the codes of Constructivism, Cubism, and modern graphic design, in a way that was both functional and symbolic.

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2. "Amphitryon 38" (1933): The Starting Point

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The first documented collaboration between the two men was the production of Amphitryon 38 by Giraudoux, staged at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in 1933. The set designed by Cassandre employed geometric structures, scenic depth, and a muted palette. It was not a realistic backdrop but a space of evocation — a scenography that supported the acting and dialogue by staging duplicity, irony, and mythological reinterpretation.

 

“The scenic space becomes a character in its own right, a mirror of the word,” wrote critics at the time in Comœdia and Le Figaro.

 

Cassandre also designed the lighting in direct relation to the set — an innovative approach at a time when light and décor were typically handled separately.

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3. Other Projects with Jouvet: Realized and Abandoned

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The partnership did not end with Amphitryon. Cassandre continued to collaborate under Jouvet’s direction at the Théâtre de l’Athénée on several other productions:

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• "Intermezzo" (1933): a symbolic and aerial set made of translucent surfaces and tiered platforms, evoking the invisible, the uncanny, and the otherworldly.

• "Tessa" (1934): a poetic atmosphere of misty landscapes, inspired by English Romantic painting, using minimal and mobile scenic elements.

• "Supplément au voyage de Cook" (1935): an exotic pastiche where Cassandre experimented with forced perspective, stylized cut-outs, and projected shadows, enhancing the colonial contrast and the text’s irony.

 

An ambitious project around Faust, which Jouvet dreamed of staging, unfortunately remained in the form of models and sketches — now preserved at the INHA (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art) and partially published.

 

4. A Shared Scenic Aesthetic: Toward a Theatre of Ideas

 

The productions jointly signed by Jouvet and Cassandre are marked by a few foundational principles:

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• Graphic minimalism: geometric forms, slanted planes, monochrome sets

• Space as metaphor: scenography expresses dramatic tension rather than literal place

• Dramaturgical use of lighting

• Strong cohesion between text, staging, and décor, in the spirit of total theatre

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This aesthetic coherence would later be theorized by Cassandre in his unpublished manuscript L’Architecture dramatique (1938–39), in which he defended the notion of an active set, charged with meaning.

 

These productions reflect Cassandre’s functionalist vision:

“In theatre, every scenic element must be justified by its dramaturgical necessity,” he wrote in his working notes.

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5. End of the Collaboration: Divergence and Continuities

 

After 1936, Jouvet and Cassandre parted ways. Jouvet continued with Giraudoux along a path of increasing theatrical purity (notably with Electra and Ondine), while Cassandre turned to scenography for opera and ballet, working with Lifar, Auric, and Milloss. Their separation was artistic but not contentious: each pursued their own theatrical ideal — Cassandre leaning toward a musical and plastic scenography, Jouvet deepening his focus on the actor and the French diction tradition.

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The collaboration between Louis Jouvet and A.M.CASSANDRE, though brief (1933–1935), was crucial. It helped redefine scenography as an intellectual and expressive discipline, fully integrated with the text and direction. It also allowed Cassandre to transpose his graphic genius into a new medium — at the crossroads of theatre, architecture, and cinema.

Ultimately, their encounter gave rise to a rare form of theatre — rigorous, stylized, and evocative — whose legacy still resonates in the memory of 20th-century French theatre. This collaboration stands alongside those of Craig and Stanislavski, or Cocteau and Barrault, in shaping the modernist stage.

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A Unique Visual Grammar

 

Cassandre's major contribution lies in the development of a genuine scenographic syntax articulating:

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1. Dramatic architecture: His sets functioned as performance machines, structuring the rhythm of movements and dramatic progression.

2. Constructive lighting: He conceived lighting as architectural material shaping space, anticipating modern light design techniques.

3. Scenic typography: His mastery of letterforms (creator of Bifur and Peignot typefaces) integrated into sets as narrative elements.

4. Functional chromatism: Each color responded to a dramaturgical necessity, creating precise "emotional temperatures."

As Louis Jouvet wrote: "Cassandre doesn't decorate a play; he embodies it in space with mathematical and poetic precision."

 

Lasting Heritage and Influence

 

Cassandre's theatrical work manifested in three complementary dimensions:

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• Realized sets and costumes: About twenty major productions between 1925 and 1939, primarily at the Athénée.

• Theoretical projects and models: Numerous unrealized but documented concepts, testifying to constant research.

• Teaching and transmission: His influence perpetuated through scenographers like René Allio or Jacques Le Marquet.

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His approach profoundly influenced the French School of scenography, establishing a conceptual bridge between Russian constructivist avant-garde and contemporary theater. Jean Vilar acknowledged his debt to "this architectural and functional conception of theatrical space" that nourished the TNP's aesthetic.

 

A Body of Work to Rediscover

 

Paradoxically, this essential facet of Cassandre's genius remains insufficiently studied. The preserved models and preparatory drawings reveal a scenographic vision of striking modernity, where the synthesis between form and function achieves a rarely equaled perfection.

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His conception of theater as a "total art" echoes contemporary research on intermediality and confirms his status as a visionary precursor whose influence continues to resonate in current scenographic practices.

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