In the interwar period and during the Second World War the name of Aristophanes was associated with many directorial personalities, among whom Karel Čapek and Jiří Frejka excelled, together with significant artists like Josef Čapek and Antonin Heythum. Aristophanes comedy in translation by Ferdinand Stiebitz became the new novel material and a source of opportunities for the emerging generation of Czech avantgarde theatre; moreover, the stage performances on several occasions served as a pacifist manifesto in difficult times of impending fascism.