chance to test 11lIself in the Srrian exhibit. Acolleague placed me in front of a model. corered up the label. and challenged me to "name that plar." I looked at a domestic room of earthr brO\I'I1S-lrood 0001' and dirt or ciaI' II ails. There lias one door up center. and the 0001' lias corered in carpets Irith geometric patterns that suggestednatire Americao cultures to me. but lI'ho kilOlrs Irhat ther meant to a Srrian scenographer? Carpets hung orerhead. as Irell. and the onll" furnilUre Iras a counter. What well-knolln play happens indoors. has one door up center. has a COUll tel' in the up left corner and a fireplace in the right IraIl? And has an earthy feeling that suggests a peasant's enrironment? Playboyojtbe Irestem World. (see photo p. -i2l I astonishedmrself more than mr colleague br guessing right. eren though this design had nothing Irish about it at all. adjacent to the bunk house table and protruding out of the stralr field. is the top of a larger-than-Iife-size brain! Is this a hillock the characters can sit on' Does this relate to Lenll\.'! L"nderneath this pla\'ing space is a 100rer-lerel pla\'ing area composed of a circle bisected by a straight ramp lI'hich comes out from underneath the upstage platform abore it-all composed of Irooden planking..-\t the terminus of the ramp. isolated inside the circle. is an upholstered armchair. On either side behind the chair. (\\0 choruses of ghostlr figures spring shrieking from the gap created bl' the intrusion of the ramp through the circle. These ghostll" figures remind me of Edrardl\\unch's agonized and haunting apparitions. OF ,\lIeF A.\'/) ,\IF.\' In an exhibit in the L"nited States I'd have found John Steinbeck"s famous piaI' bl'looking for images of 19r. a Western ranch exterior. and the bunk beds and cast-iron stove that are needed for the action. But the sceno-detective in me II";tS getting Irilr. so Irhen I entered the Swedish exhibit and stood before Soren Brunes' model for the Stockholm Cit\' Theatre's production, I Irasn't surprised. This setting seems to hare 1\1"0 playing levels. one above the other. that create two distinct worlds. clearh' delineated. Do these establish 1\1'0 temporal realities-one nOli' and one in 193f? The theatre this setting lias designed for looks like some kind of unusual thrust. huge in scale. The upstage surround is all black. and the back Imll is pierced br 1\1"0 rectangular openings. These are backed br a blue ski" in front of Irhich grolls a field of bleached strall'-like regetation that extends all the IraI' dOll'I1stage left establishing the hue of the monochromatic setting. The central plaring area and the space stage-right are made from bleached plank Oooring. There is cut str;l\r stre\\"ll e\'enwhere except for a small area in center stage that is fiLled Irith a bleached wooden table and four lI'ooden cubes that serre as stools-this is the bunk house. I guess. On a slightll" 100rer level. Production photo of Robert Ebeling's setting for Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf...?, directed by R. Grober, 1993. \\'HO'S AFRAID OF \'mCL\'fA \\'OOLF Aquick stop at the German exhibit showed me Robert Ebeling's design for E(hrard Albee's famous play. \othing in this design suggested an academic's home-nar\' a bookshelf in sight-and nothing suggested northeastern America-no chintz-corered furniture, no oriental carpets. and no paneled Irainscoting. Instead. I found a high-tech and ultra modern interior Irith a tall glass panel rerealing the pine trees outside. and all of it in abruptll" angled Iralls that bespeak Expressionismmore than the Realism I're ahrays associate lI'ith Albee's piaI'. Yet in retrospect. I beliere. this pial' about the tension bellreen illusion and reality in Irhich the epic battle of the sexes is played Oll! in Strindbergian passions and Wildean \'erbiage is better expressed in this setting than in anI' other I hare seen. ,\merican pial'S Irhich are as familiar to me as mI' farorite pair of slippers. looked strange Irhen seen through the el'es of non-American scenographers. Their theatrical language is not formed br 110111'Irood-stde realism nor br the traditions of ;\merican stage design. Yet after haring studied the models and renderings of designers from lIungar\'. Slreden. Srria. Siorakia. and GermanI'. I nOlI' see ;\merica more clearlr. *:. Zsolt Khell's model of Arthur Miller's The Witches of Salem Linda SaJ'l'er is Nesidellt Costllllle Desigllerjor tbe Piolleer (The Crucible), directed by Janos Mohacsi, 1995. Tbeatre COllljJallY ill Salt Lake Cit)'. 10&1 \ I I 'j II