Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1983 - 8

1979, after sharing the Gold Medal with
Ralph Koltai and O'Brien-Firth in 1976.
Although he has done a few operas and
commercial productions, his career is
exceptional for its sustained consecutive
work with each of three companies,
notably in association with two major
directors. Soon after WWII he joined
Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in
East London, where he remained for
well over a decade. In 1962 he joined
Peter Hall at the RSC, and in 1973 he
left with Hall to take charge at the National Theatre, a position he still holds.
Bury is perhaps the outstanding
British example of a very successful scenographer who had no training in art,
theatre design, or even architecture. He
joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop first as an actor but soon began to
devote most of his energy to lighting and
then to staging. His work there was
characterized by an improvisational ingenuity in the face of minimal budgets,
and by its fuctionality rather than its artful design. His trademark became the
assembling of authentic raw materials
and elements for the construction of
essentially realistic though highly selective sets, very much like film sets in. that
they could be built rather solidly right on
stage because Littlewood's theatre did
not perform in alternating repertory.
Actually, Bury's chief interest was originally in lighting, and the sets simply
heightened its effect: "I was interested
in real texture in sets because that responded better to lighting-I wasn't a
painter."
After moving to the RSC, Bury,
unlike almost all other British scenographers, kept on lighting his own sets, but
eventually he had to give it up for most
productions because of his complex responsibilities (which included planning
for the new Barbican Theatre). As his
most celebrated production demonstrated, however, his interest in authentic materials and strongly textured sets
remained. For The Wars of the Roses
sequence by the RSC in 1963 and 1964,
he provided a scenography that radically
departed from the prevailingly romantic, decorative designs of the 1950s at
Stratford. It was more realistic and, in
line with limited budgets, more spare.
Above all, however, it was powerful in
imagery and expressiveness. Bury is always concerned with a central image,
whether of color, form, or material.
Here the primary image was steel:

John Bury, The Wars of the Roses, /963-64: the steel periaktoi shown meeting. Note the two arc grooves
showing at the base of each unit, along which the units could //love.

John Bury's set for Vol pone, /977: a Renaissance frame with three sets of doors per portal for
the various scenes.

Surrounding all, the great steel cage
of war. ... It was a period of armour
and a period of the sword. . .. We
wanted an image rather than a naturalistic surrounding ... [of] a dangerous
world, a terrible world. 2

Steel covered the floor, segments of
wall, and even some furniture. But it
was most evident in two huge periaktoi
constructions, each of which could pivot
as well as ride along a curved track and
thereby alter the space and look of the
stage depending on which face of the
periaktoi was evident and where each

6 Theatre Design & Technology/USITT/Fall 1983

unit stood in relation to the other.
As head of design for the RSC, Bury
was also centrally involved in the development of a lighter, more abstract, socalled "box" approach to staging.
Largely for the sake of economy, a basic
box with a standard rake was to be
used as a stage within the stage for a
whole season of plays, providing permanent masking and an esthetically neutral
environment within which each play
might make its own, somewhat limited
statement. It did provide a consistent,
rather attractive look for a series of pro-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1983