Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1987 - 14

world of fiction and its magic metamorphoses through a
frame that is no more than a vast window giving onto a
world of pure illusion. There is the rupture between the
house and the stage, there is the distance between the
spectator and the theatrical act. Segregation is not only
operative in the house, it reigns in the whole of the
theatre.

rom the beginning of the century, the arts
have experienced profound esthetic revolutions. It is the way of perceiving the world
itself which is changing and, for the artist,
the way of representing it. Each art tends to
find its independence, to purify itself, to rediscover the
laws that define its specific character. The theatre cannot remain apart from these changes. At a time of multiple degeneration (literary, visual), it too has its reformers
and, like Craig, dreams of its "artists of the future."
From Appia to Meyerhold, from Craig and Copeau to
Piscator, it is the means of scenic expression which
undergo the first major modifications.
However one chooses to rethink the modes of scenic
representation, the place of the representation itself cannot be ignored and, indeed, from the very beginning of
the century, theatre space has been the object of reflection and research. The focus is no more nor less than
this: first, to provide the scenic work with a new chamber of resonance, and second, to institute a new relational configuration between the audience and the dramatic action. Directors, architects, and designers are all
bent on resolving the problem.
What is required? The reasons and the arguments are
complex.
First, it is to r'emake the theatre into a "living art," an
"act" as it was in the time of the ancient Greeks. These
are Appia's terms! - to draw the spectators Out of their
passivity, to "entice" them to participate. And to that
end, to make of the theatre space a place of communion
among the spectators on the one hand, and between the
audience and the dramatic action on the other. To regenerate the theatre, "retheatricalize" it, as Georg Fuchs
stated in Die Revolution des Theaters.' Wishing to completely abolish the barrier bet\\'een audience and performance, Adolphe Appia inspired in 1911-1912 the
continuous Great Hall of the Jaques-Dalcroze In tinIte
at Hellerau; he envisaged the theatre-to-be as a "cathedral of the futllre,"~ a vast space, free and transformable,
intended for social manifestations as well as popular
festivals such as those described by lean-Jacques Rousseau in his Letter to d'Alembert, '; those common in
Appia's native Switzerland.
The desire to create a theatre based on the unification
of space brings several factors into play: for example, the
substitution of the illusory illusion of the decor with an
illusion founded on the living presence of the actor.
There is a new respect for earlier theatrical traditions
such as commedia dell'arte and temporary platform theatre in which actor and convention are of prime importance. There is a new interest in related types of performance-the circus, Asian theatre (Japanese j oh and
Kabuki, Chinese acrobats) and of social practices that
encourage participation, for example, worship (attempts
12

TD&T'

FALL 1087

The Cour d'Honneur of the Palace of Popes at Avignon.

A scene from 1789 performed by Le Theatre du Solei!.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1987