Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991 - 51

Condee: Is it a good idea when a
production moves to reconceive it fOr the
new space?
Miller: Usually the idea of reconceiving it
is probably misplaced. There's no such
thing as reconceiving a design which
itself is constitutive of the production
and you undertake theproduction for
that particular form. To reconceive it is
really another way of saying that you've
setrled for something less that perfect I
usually almost disown it.
It hasn't happened to me very much. I
haven't had to do it mote than twice, I
think. In one case it didn't matter. The
Candide that I did, which was done
originally at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow
and then came to the Old Vic, was
designed for both. The box in which it
was set was suitable for both the physical
spaces, because they were both
proscenium arch and so therefore there
was no loss. In fact there was a slight
gain, because Vic was a little bit smaller .
The Emperor was taken from the
upstairs theatre to the downstairs theatre
at the Royal Court and it was very
damaged. It just got blown apart. That
hermetically sealed privacy of being in on

something vety secret juSt simply
vanished. And that was what it was
about. It was about secrecy and
eavesdropping and surveillance. Here you
were simply watching a spectacle. In
there, it was as if you were part of the
conspiracy.
Condee: At the Old Vic, has your choice of
play been influence by the theatre space?
Miller: 0, I've been able to be fairly free
with the format. As I say, with King Lear,
for example, we just smashed it all open.
And I suspect that if I do what I want to
do next year, which is to do an
adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, I'll breal<
It open.
I'd like to be much more experimental
with the seating and perhaps bring things
right out, build a catwalk out. Sometimes
I do quite delibetately lose the first tWO,
even thtee rows in the stalls. When I did
The Tempest with Max von Sydow, I
btoke the thing right out into the
auditorium as well Bur there is a limit
obviously as to what you can do with
that theatre.
I've often thought how nice it would
be to be a little bit more fundamental

and perhaps pur a row of bleachers up on
the stage and really have a double view of
the thing. But it's early days yet and if I
do stay on there I think I'll try all sons of
things. And also ultimately I hope that if
I do stay on there for another tWO years
that they'll give me the annex next door,
where I can do small stuff. That's the old
paint frame and everything, which
belonged to the National Theatre
originally and there's a quite large
rehearsal space there, which is
appropriate for a, say, 200-seat or 150seat theatre. The Mirvishes rented it out
to the
ational Theatre, where Peter Gill
has his experimental studio, but it reverts
to us next year.
Condee: And )/ou can't wait to get your
hands on it?
Miller: Yes, can't wait
it.

to

get my hands on

m

William F. Condee is an assistant proftssor
and chair of undergraduate studies in the
Schoof ofTheatre at Ohio University.

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1991 WINTER

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991
