Milena Steinmassl’s Toyen: the ability to live in the solitude of responsibility

The free-spirited painter and globally recognized representative of the Czechoslovak interwar avant-garde, Toyen, got another stage appearance. After Švand’s theater, the Kolowrat Theater also claims its legacy. The surrealistic production Toyen – All colors of solitude, based on the artist’s work, was created thanks to the production zeal of the actress Milena Steinmasslová.

“Toyen knew one thing that I’m learning in my late years—not needing validation. She made the decision, she didn’t need to explain it to anyone, to justify it, she did it, but then she also bore all the consequences. She paid and didn’t mind. This ability to have the solitude of responsibility for one’s choices, for one’s life, for one’s kumst, for one’s loves, for everything – that is simply admirable,” explains Milena Steinmasslová, one of the reasons for her admiration for Toyen, which also made its way into the title of the production. The director Tereza Karpianus sat in our studio next to the interpreter of the famous painter and at the same time the initiator of the project, who added: “We honored Toyen, who is reserved, chaste, secretive. And we mainly relied on her work and weren’t interested in the kind of things that interest journalists or the tabloids, like who she slept with or how she felt about gender identity. Yes, that’s interesting, but it’s not quite what I was interested in on stage.’