Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972 - 25

ter than ours (he spoke of the story
tellers common to Iranian street bazaars) because I understood them
better. Ours speak only with their
voices. Yours speak withtheirbodies
and the ir hearts."
Their next stop was Edinburgh
where 4 years before both Eugene
Lee and Gregory first met Grotowski.
They played in the same space when
Gregory first saw Grotowski's "Acropolis." Ironically Edinburgh was
Alice's only critical failure. One review said that Alice was played like
a prostitute, the cat like a cripple,
and that the whole vulgar mess
looked as if it had been directed by
a fourth-rate Hollywood hack. There
are many explanations for this. The
most common is the resistance of
the British to the reconstruction of
one of their great classics. Gregory's
own explanation is more political.
For the first time he saw Lewis
Carroll's characters as satirizing the
people who rule Britain and his
(Gregory's) playas an amplification
of the satirical content. However, he
also alluded to the space. He described it as one of the worst they
had ever played in. It was in a dismal gutted building that had formerly
been the Festival Offices. That
"Acropolis" had been a success in
this space is not surprising since
"Acropolis" is set in a prison camp.
When they arrived in Berlin it
looked as though another disaster

was in sight. Based on very careful
measurements taken while the company was at Amsterdam, the Berlin
theatre
Festival
reconstructed
"Alice's" entire environment in steel
(in compliance with Berlin's rigid
fi re codes) and placed it in the middle of what Gregory describes as
"Berlin's Madison Square Garden."
The steel doors were three times
the height of normal doors and gave
the look of a "festive gas chamber."
The slightest sound crashed around
against the steel walls.
Gregory said that he could not perform in such a space and tried to introduce the Germans to the concept
of a "natural environment"-a boat
on the Wansee, a brothel, a deserted
apartment building set in a World
War II ruin. They came up with no
alternate. Just at the point of cancelling, the Festival Director asked
Gregory to take one last look at the
little gas chamber in the middle of
Madison Square. Said Gregory, "He
was a nice guy, I knew it was hopeless but I went anyway and reiterated the principle of a "natural,
strange environment." While I was
talking a workman whose job was
Iiterally to clean up the crap after
circuses, etc. leave town, said he
knew of a place he thought the gentlemen would like to see."
The workman led Gregory and the
Festival Director little further than
across the street to an operating

CREDITS - THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Director: Andre Gregory
Cast:

Angela Pietropinto
Tom Costello
Larry Pine
Gerry Bamman
Jerry Mayer
Saskia Noordehecht

Stage Manager: John Holmes
Tour Manager: Ninon Tallon-Karlweis
Designer: Eugene Lee and Franne Newman

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY, 1972

stable and indoor riding ring. Within
six hours the parachute / tent was
set up in one corner and seats created from jumps and mounting
blocks. The labyrinth was simulated
by leading the audiences through
the stable past the horses and across
the sawdust of the riding ring. They
then ducked under a metal pipe used
to block the horses and into the
world of "AI ice." It is ironic that the
Festival laid out some $25,000 to
construct the steel set and rent the
big space, whereas the production
costs at the stable were zero.
The Manhattan Project ended its
tour in Paris at the Espace Pierre
Cardin-an elegant
pure
white
"space-ship modern" (says Lee) salon designed for viewing haute-couture. Here the distortion was provided by the contrast of going from
the monochromatic opulence of the
foyer up to and into the equally
plush sparkling white salon which
enclosed the dusty, dirty, organic
environment of "Alice."
Gregory is not sure to what extent the ambiance of the space in
which the Manhattan group creates its
own environment directly affects the
actors because they are so completely involved and concentrated on
that which they are creating together.
However, the contrasting responses
to the playas experienced in Spoleto
and Shiraz certainly indicate that the
nature of the surrounding space very
definitely affects how the play is experienced by the audience and what
colors, themes, or tones in its complex fabric dominate.
Because of his need to improvise
with space, Gregory would probably
not set up criteria for an ideal performing space. However, it is to
Richard Schechner's credit that Gregory and the Manhattan Project were
happier in his Performing Garage
where they played a limited run until early May than they have been
anywhere else except in the magical
packing factory in Iran.

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