Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1995 - 51

SEEING
AMERICA

BY LINDA

SARVER

n the Il'eeks before PQ '95 I saw a florid magenta set for
SlI'eet Bird ofloillb in London, a turquoise green one for
Cal all a Hal Till Roofin Hong Kong, and an "action
design" setting for Tbey're PI{(J'illg 0111' SOllg in Bratislava,

so 1was prepared to see American theatre through another
culture's eles Ilhen I got to Prague, and I lIas not disappointed, The image of America that is revealed in the theatrical designs of American plals bl designers from around the Ilorid
teaches us a lot about ourselves that lIe couldn't see on our OIl'll stages,
While I lIas looking at the manl national e:xhibits in Prague's E:xposition
Hall, I lIas reminded of Edllard Albee's celebrated line from ZOO SIOI:r '
"Sometimes you have to go a long distance out of your Ilal in order to
come back a short distance correctll, "Sometimes IOU hale to go to
Prague to see America clearh'.
With ml camera in ml right hand, I Ilelll looking for America in
the various national e:xhibits that the PQ '95 e:xhibit catalog in 1111' left
hand told me included designs for pial's bl American plal'llTights, I
thought it Ilouid be an easl task, as these are plm's 1knOll Ilell: Dealb
ofa SaleslI/all, lJJe Class ,Ilel/agerie, Lill', lJJe Cl'lIcible, and 0II/ice
alld ,Ilel/, Though I didn't knOll it Ilhen I set out. I soon learned I lIas
on a hUIll for an enriched understanding of ml natile land,
The first place I stopped lIas in front of the Slledish e:xhibition, It
lIas a large Ple:xiglas cube filled Ilith nearll fiftl scenic models, and I
Ilaiked around all four sides lIYing to find the designs for Dealb ala
SaleslI/all, I coulcln't. so I started reading the labels, and I lIas astonished hI scenographer Soren Brunes's tllO models for Dealb ala SalesII/al/ (Plaza, Stockholm, 1995), Thel'llere the first to teach me the
truth I lIas reminded of regular" in the coming daIS, that I might not
aillals recognize lI'hat I lIas looking for: that :\merica II'oliidn't aillals
look the Il'al' I e:xpected it to, \,'ith 1111' :\merican frame of reference, the
mention of :\rthur ,\liller's Dealb ala SaleslI/al/ immediatell produced
the Pal'!ol'ian imagistic response of,lo ,\Iielziner's celehrated sketch, I
Il'asn't e:xpecting to find a lil'id green 19,'\Os roadster Il'hose sole passenger Il'as a gigantic egg, "or lIas I looking for the model that had

three e:Xlremell steep red-lacquered stairs with a huge rock poised at
the top, tenuousll restrained from crushing the tinl dOlmstage human
figure bl a zig-zag of thin red corel. Where's the refrigerator? HOII' about
the bOIS' tll'in beds? Obviouslv this Swedish scenographer was looking
at ~Iiller's pial in lI'alS I'dnel'er imagined, Time to take ml' imagination
off "cruise control" and thrall to the winds traditional. preconceiled
Il'alS of seeing, Time to see SaleslI/al/ metaphorically; anclnot just
Sales 11/aII,

I noll' viewedmlseLf as a sceno-detective on the hun I for the une:xpecled perception of American drama, Rather than being threatened hI'
the loss of visual famiUarity, I II';IS on a treasure hunt lI'hose rell'ard Il'as
an illuminating look at those classic pial'S I'd always associated with
fossilized I'isml images,

Production photo

of Gy6rgy Szeg6's setting for Tennessee Williams'
The Glass Menagerie, directed by 1. Taub, 1993,

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1995
