Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972 - 8

all will be alike in general form if not
in detail. I take it also that it will be
built of the most costly materials, our
care being lest we tarnish or spoil it
in any way ....
... The size is not of paramount importance; but, great or small, it must
be precious if it is to be durable.
I cannot persuade myself that we
could ever reach an age in which we
shall cease to value rare and precious
materials ....
... But do not let us be vague about
these materials. Let us name them-gold, silver, copper, bronze and other
precious metals; diamonds, emeralds,
rubies and other precious stones;
lapis-lazuli. crystals, ivory, ebony, malachite, marble, mosaic, glass stained
with precious colours, silks finer than
we have yet made; and all these
things in the hands of men who delight to touch them and work with
them.
To decide upon the general form of
this building many minds would cooperate; and, after the general form
was once established, the thousandstens of thousands---of artists, craftsmen and so forth, the workmen and
the tradesmen, would bring their powers to bear upon the details.
The broad lines would be laid down;
there could be no departing from
them; they would be clearly defined.
not rambling or cramped, but each
example would bear the impress of
each individual master.
Were there many theatres, the stage
of this one could differ from the stage
of that within certain limits, and the
requirements would dictate those limits. After that everything would be
free, so that the invention of the architect would find free play ....
... In what we call the Decoration
of our theatre, I mean the stage decoration together with the lighting and
the costumes. all would be just as
durable and as precious as the building itself. There would be no attempt
to produce what we call "theatrical illusion." For instance, we should not
paint a tree, or put up an imitation
tree so as best to copy in colour and
texture a real tree. No more than in a
cathedral they put up a wooden copy
of the original cross. Doubtless the
cross on which the Saviour was crucified was an ordinary and rough wooden structure, but when it reaches the
cathedral it becomes a precious work
of art, in no way realistic. 4

The very special reverence with
which Wagnerites, perfect and imperfect, received the performances
in the "temporary" but nonethel ess
elegantly outlined theatre gave it an
aura of which Craig might well have
approved, had he ever journeyed to
Bayreuth. The separation of the auditorium from the stage by means of
the so-called "Mystic Gulf" between
the two components, in which the
orchestra played unseen, pouring up
waves of sound to mingle with-not
drown-the singer-actors on stage,
creating an instrumental and vocal
symphony: all this should have won
Craig's interest and admiration.
Had Craig been able to see Wieland's productions especially, but
also some of Wolfgang's, he might
have been moved to compare the
way in which the soloists and chorus
were-and are----fl1oved about the
stage-space. Consider, in this connection, Craig's visionary comments
on the actor of the future, an actor
in a theatre which would have passed
beyond a shoddy stage "realism" to
a more universal and symbolic truthto-life. As Craig said:
... Do away with the real tree, do
away with the reality of delivery, do
away with the reality of action, and
you tend towards the doing away with
the actor. This is what must come to
pass in time .... Do away with the
actor, and you do away with the
means by which a debased stagerealism is produced and flourishes.
No longer would there be a living figure to confuse us into connecting actuality and art; no longer a living figure in which the weakness and tremors of the flesh were perceptible.
The actor must go, and in his place
comes the inanimate figure--the Ubermarionette we may call him, until he
has won for himself a better name.
Much has been written about the
puppet, or marionette. There are some
excellent volumes upon him, and he
has also inspired several works of art.
To-day in his least happy period many
people come to regard him as rather
a superior doll-and to think he has
developed from the doll. This is incorrect. He is a descendant of the stone
images of the old temples-he is today a rather degenerate form of a
god .... 5

Craig's idea of the Uber-marionette (Super-Marionette) is not without relevance in this connection, because the tendency has been to treat
the performers as almost superstatues,
like public monuments
which also sing, moving them around
the stage to form effective compositions which visually illustrate the
tensions of the music-drama, just as
the lighting echoes the emotional
fabric of the score. This, in fact, is
borne out by Kurt Winter, the Wagners' lighting expert at Bayreuth:
" ... the production was not developed as it is everywhere else, where
the rehearsals come first, followed
by the dress rehearsals with the
singers and chorus, and finally a
technical rehearsal with the lighting
as the last item. We turned them all
around. The first thing we did was
to plan the lighting. We set up the
completed scenery and then lit the
production. Then we made notes on
how it looked best, visually, and how
these effects could be achieved.
Then, and only then, did Herr Wagner [Wieland] place his singers in
the composition, that is, stage the
production in the completely designed and lit set. And when he did
his staging, he did not do it like any
other directors: 'I need more light. "
there! ... and there I need more
light or I won't be able to see my
Brunnhilde or my Wotan.' Instead,
he would say: 'That looks best that
way, so Brunnhilde must stand over
there. Yes, that's choreographically
in order.' Or: 'Excuse me, Frau
_
_ _ _ _, but you'll have to move
over there or you won't be in the
light. "6
That both of the Wagner grandsons had access to the works of
Appia and Craig is clear. During the
Hitler period, Germany was, of
course, cut off from most outside
art influences, but, thanks to Siegfried Wagner and Houston Stewart
Chamberlain, Craig and Appia were
already on the premises. As Skelton
notes: "Though Houston Stewart
Chamberlain's attempts to interest
Cosima in Appia's ideas on the in-

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY, 1972

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