Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1977 - 15

MOTIVES FOR THE RESTORATION
OF HISTORIC THEATRES
AMSTERDAM

ONNO GREINER

Mr. Greiner's paper was prepared and presented for the 8th World Congress of the International Federation for Theatre
Research. The Congress was held in Munich, Federal Republic of Germany, 18-25 September, 1977.

Motives for restoring historic theatres can be divided
basically into rational and irrational ones. I think it is
meaningful to make a division, which, however, does not
pretend to be complete.
I. For instance one can have the following rational
motives:
1. The building is historic.
2. The building is unique.
3. The building, as a theatre, is representative of the
period in which it was built, and should be preserved as a specimen.
4. The building offers alternative possibilities: it is
built on a large scale and it can be adapted to new
developments (sometimes other than theatre-technical possibilities).
5. The location of the building in the town is important.
6. The enviornment of the theatre offers many possibilities for restoration and rebuilding.
7. In the building are many examples of appl ied art,
for instance wall-painting of importance.
II. Some examples of irrational motives:
1. People can not give up the building for purely
sentimental reasons.
2. People are used to the building as a feature of the
town.
3. They look upon the building as a national symbol,
associated with glorious memories.
4. The community as well as the architect, lack the
courage and the force to create space for modern
development and therefore prefer to retain an old
theatre under the show of "protection of culture."
The latter will never be admitted, but it often contributes to wrong decisions. In contrast with all the
other causes and motives, which are possibly positive, this one is negative. It is exclusively based on
fear but counts heavily in decision-making.
All these rational and irrational motives do not Iie far
from one another and can even overlap, but if sometimes
they coincide, one of the motives generally prevails. Of
course, this is a matter of personal choice of an even
greater number. One motive for restoration, which belong
to the irrational class, but which might be approached
rationally, is the space-effect of a theatre. I will set this
aside to come back to later on.
Now we can investigate - by the standards of 1977 whether we should proceed to restoration or whether we
should not. This appears to evoke a complicated complex
of contradictions. Besides, the taking of decisions about
restoration is influenced by the time in which we live.

USITT

In the case of the oldest theatres we know, we still see
how useful they are for many purposes, or sometimes for
specific ones. If we speak of the extant Greek theatres,
which have nowhere been restored to their original
state, we see the value: they have been and still are
visited and used gratefully. We are aware of the magic
of Epidauros and Delphi: listening during just a visit,
the enchanted public stays until the close; used as a
theatre, they are sold out. The Roman theatres we know,
have an equal power of attraction.
Everyone who knows these edifices, realizes that they
have been restored enough as to make them usable again.
It would be interesting if one or two of the remaining
classic theatres of the Hellenic period and their Roman
descendants were to be restored totally, with all the
possibilities and tricks used at that times. Then it would
be possible to revive the theatre of that period.
In fact, what we are doing now is performing our own
versions, our own interpretations in the remains of those
old theatres, dreaming in the romantic atmosphere of the
ruins about the glory of Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus.
Th is in itself is not wrong: the possibil ities of a good
theatre fit any time, any period. But, is it really necessary
to restore Epidauros completely? The amphitheatre i's
ready now, with rows of 65 cm depth, which has been
accepted by the public who - in London, Paris or Amsterdam - complains already with 80 em. We are inclined to
leave it unchanged; it is like music: we can give our own
interpretation, while the creation, though not constrain·
ing, is stronger than the listener suspects.
It appears that we are using the oldest theatres we
know, feeling happy in them, even when they are not as
they used to be: to us their expression of space is the
main thing, though being aware of that other very subjective sentiment: actors once played here the deepest sentiments, the pain, humiliation and victory of life in those
days.
The remaining theatres of the past centuries, what do
they show us? After the solid Roman buildings, that even
the all-destroying Christianity could not wipe out, no
theatre was built for centuries.
The theatre as a permanent bu ilding was not reborn
until the Renaissance. From that time on we have had
theatres - though few - that tell us something about
change and development. We can say that writings survive
the fiery history of mankind more successfully than do
buildings.
Now we are in the twentieth century and we have a
fright, realizing how few theatres are left from the recent

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

WINTER,1977

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1977