Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1996 - 27

FIGURE

Zbol'iloq)'s Taming of/llc S11rcII. Tile rendering SllO\\S tile skeletal
construction on a turntable bcIorc lIle touring actors fasten tile clotll
drapes to tile frames to form lIle facades of buildings facing a square.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ FIGURE

Zboi'ilo\;)'s Salin Slippcr. Tile angel \\ings
illustrated tile most striking use of tile elotll drapes.
nography. As she has put il.
I're all/,{/)'s empbasized scellograp/~J' tbat isfllllct iOlla!.
··actiolla!." tbat serl'eS tbe text. actioll. alld actors. Its
1I0t a matter of ··desigll... bllt of making sense of tbe
gil'en circllmstaJ/ces and action. bllt cOllcllrrent(J' being concel'Jled witb tbe l'islla!. aestbetic aspect: tbe two
go band in balld. I prefer more allstere elements tban
decoratil'e olles becallse tbe former force ['iewers to
lise tbeir imagillatioll. I also prefer elemellts tbat alter
tbeirform andfllnetioll in tbe cOllrse ofa p/rUc~l
"Elements that alter their form and function" \yere evident in two other productions. For A. ZemanCikoya's G.I/JS),
Tales (Cheb, 1990) [Fig. 12], Zbol'ilod had a random assemblage of furniture of a g)1Jsv home and an open stair unit on a
turntable; dominating the scene in the center of the turntable
was a huge skeletal umbrella. Suspended from its naked ribs
were variouslv shaped and colored cloths, as \yell as some
s\yings that swung out \yhen the construction hlIlctioned as a
carousel: at other times, the construction became a tree. or a
huge parasol; or the suspended drapes \Vould mask off part of
the hIrlliture as the umbrella ribs or the turntable itself rotated. Another two-level skeletal construction placed on a
turntable \yas the key scenic element for Shakespeanc's Taming oftbe Sbrew (Brno. 199-1) [Fig. I:lJ. At first bare and
proyiding a space for Sly and the mistress of the inn, it became
coyered \yith strategically placed cloths \yith \yindO\y openings
by the arriving troupe of actors and therebY became a to\\'I1
square: and \\hen re\ersed via the turntable. it became
Petruccio's unkempt household. ,\ccording to Zbofilod... It
\yas all yell' plmful. actional. non-literal. and lent itself to the
actors' actions and business." ~~
The same could be said of Claudel's 7'lJe Satill Slipper
(Brno 1995) IFig. 1-11. e\cept thaI it \yas staged in a larger
theatre on a much larger scale. BUl clOlhs and drapes \yere
again the dominating scenographic component. In a piaI' \\ith
1110re that twenty scene changes, Zbofilod relied on varied
placement of large-scale wooden profile boards in the form of
cliffs. plus large. muJti-hll1ctional cloth drapes that \yere trans-

formed from the sails of a ship. to spider webs, to the \Yings of
an angel. and even other hlIlctional and s\mboUc forms.
T\yO productions made use of an interesting combination
of cloth and kinetic objects. A huge cloth with mam graphic
elements formed both the rear \yall and the Door for a dramatization of Alice in \Vander/and (Cheb, 198-1) [see page 19J.
The rear \rall \yas pierced by t\yO n1\'Sterious holes through
which passed a circular railroad track and its \yhimsically
shaped car. This "mechanical" component along \yith the
paintings on the cloth, especially the bare tree curving around
one of the holes, caught something close to the spirit of the
fantasy.
Considerablv more complicated \\,;IS her 199-1 production of\aclav Havel's adaptation ofTbe Beggar's OjJera on one
of the largest Czech stages. in a theatre built in the 1980s in
Most [Figs. 15 andlGj. Here too, objects came through holes
in a cam'as \Yall, but the the principle and its embodiment
\\we significantl\ different. A \ariet" of hlrniture and props
\\we strategically placed on a large turntable. bisected from
aboye by a large. suspended bi-fold cam'as \rall \yith four
dooJ'\yays. As the turntable rotated. the yarious three-climensional pieces rode off stage or on stage tbrollgb the e\isting
dooJ'\\a\s in the can\as \\all. At the end. the canyas wall lifted
up and back. therebY reyealing all the props and furniture plus
\yhirling colored lights and a fancy con\enible \yith l\lacheath
and his girls. Especialii' interesting here \yas ZbofilO\Xs e\pansion of her distincti\e scenographY to include larger. tecblIical(J' more comple\ elements. In facl. but for the cloth and
the pladulness inherent in the total scenographic concept,
this could haye been a S\oboda production.~;
One play proYides a final e\ample of the \york of these
t\\O leading contemporary scenographers. In the spring of
1995. each one \\orked on a production of Eugene O'\eill's
LOllg Dr!J"s/olll'lle)' Illto .\'igM. Roszkopfod in Ostra\a \yith
director Janik. Zbofilod in Brno \yith director Zdenck Kala<:.
Both production teams had to deal \yith a large proscenium
stage and both decided to heighten the intimacy of the performance b,' seating the audience on the stage itself. The
TD&T

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1996