Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1992 - 32

come up the steps, and you'd see them
surging up from the runnels, which was
quite something. There weren't runnels
in the Assembly Hall in Scodand. That
was something he terribly wamed. He
said that sometimes you wam ro get rid
of people quickly. Whoosh, they're off,
don't linger and loiter and have a long
procession every time, juSt whiz off.
That was his blueprinr. He showed it
ro me, he drew it on the back of an
envelope, and it was like this and like
this. I did see a phorograph [of The
Three Estates}, and I was very impressed.
But what is a phorograph? Flat, black
and white. So all this [at Srratford) really came out of discussions abour the
same idea, only differem, more flexible.
It was called Shakespearean theatre at
that poinr. Wouldn't you know that the
very second year he said, "Let's do a
Greek rragedy."
Once we gOt ro Minneapolis, wise
after the evem, he said, "This is now not
a festival thearre, it's all the year round,
it's classical thearre, they might do anything there, they might wam ro do a
modern play, if it's of classical starure.
They cerrainly will do some Shakespeare. There should be a way of adapting for doing the Greeks, adapting for a
wider emrance, higher, more impressive,
which you couldn't do here [at
Srratford). We were sruck with that balcony. My faulr. Bur I didn't know it was
a faulr. I was rold it was for Shakespeare.
I knew there were thirry-odd plays that
might be done in it, some of them
twice. So that seemed a good idea, have
it permanenr. And it was. It was as
strong as srrong. If you rried ro shake
one of the columns you couldn't,
because they were absolurely rigid. My
feeling was that the cemer column, the
prow of the ship, was holding up the
whole building. Of course, it wasn'r. I
thought if that is ever removed, the
building will come down. Not rrue.
Several people have removed it several
nmes.
You don't approve?
I can't approve or disapprove. It JUSt
bothers me because that means they
made a proscenium, a litde tiny proscenium, and it means that people come on
favoring that pan of the house. \X1hereas
the cemer pillar, known as Tanya's personal column, by some winy person
here, I don't know who said it, the poinr
abour that was you couldn't make a center enrrance, you had ro come in on the
diagonal, therefore favoring the whole
house in theory.
30

1992 FALL

TD&T

break up the look.
Your experience in working with the
architect here at Stratford was very positive?
\X1ell, that column, he put in the cenrer,
and with his pair of compasses he drew a
circle around it, and that's where it was,
the cenrer of the building.
Your interactions with the architect at
the Guthrie were not as felicitous?
Shall I rry and excuse that by sayi ng I
was brought in later; here, I was in at

Salisbu'J'iu Kiugjolm. /960.

I));;S[(I"," SI IOl-L])SJ;;I{'-I·=
TllE 1'1..\ Y .\","]) ","OT
DI;;TI'L\(VT F'I{O\I IT.

the starr. Everyone who comes in later is
looked at with, perhaps, son of disapproval. \X1e rried ro get on, we did rry. I
was asked ro do an impossible thing,
which was ro design a flexible back wall,
which the architect felt was his
province. Ir was poimed out that this
was part of the stage, and I was the stage
consultanr, so I should do ir. Well, I did
rry my very hardest to do what everybody wamed me to do, bur you never
can do that, can you'
I gather that you did not approve of
the multicolored auditorium seats.
I radler liked that acrually. Norhing
ro do with me, bur again, the architecr
thought a monorony of seats, should
they be empty, some of them, if they
were multicolored, maybe they would
0,

It seems to go against your principle
that everything in the building, not
just the stage, should draw the focus
toward the actor.
Yes, bur I remember him pOlmlng our
that outside the building the ground
was quite rough, and then it gOt a bit
smoother, and then they gOt ro the carpet, it was really quite luxurious, and
then they walked in, they were coming
from a rough world ourside inro a son
of magic world. I think he thought, and
I'm sure I'm right in thinking he
thought, the first impact, as they come
into the theatre, isn't the focus on the
stage, because there's nothing happening. So they look around, and they see
the multicolored seats. Of course, quite
soon, with luck, all those seats are filled,
and then they don't know, are you sitting on a blue chair or a green chair.
When the house was full, it was just like
anywhere else. I think that Gurhrie and
I both though t the color range was roo
exrreme. Both our instincts were ro cur
out two of the colors at either end of the
specrrum. By the time our lener gOt
there-fax didn't exisr!-it was a fait
accompli, it was done. Bur it didn't bother me.
You have been strongly associated with
plays of historic significance set in
other periods. What is your ani tude
toward starting out with a play that is
firmly rooted in an hisrorical period?
What freedom do the director and
designer have to move away from the
historic period?
To be quite truthful, I don't lead, I follow, if my director says, "This play
would be gready assisted if it were in
modern dress, then the audience can
bener associate themselves, they can
relate to the characters if they see someone wearing trousers, not tights."
Gurhrie's idea of modern dress was really Edwardian, it rurned out, long skins
for the women, and radler eleganr suits
for the men, or uniforms, quite often.
So All's Well That Ends Well, righ t at the
stan, was said to be in modern dress.
Well, you didn't see those clothes walking around in the srreets.
Having decided that the Edwardian era
was to be the look, how literal did you
feel you needed ro be with the period?
Not very in that producrion l That was
pardy because it was economic to buy

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1992