Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1987 - 15

·he performing space for L'Age d'or by le Theatre du Solei!.

being made to create spatial relationships resembling
those that exist in a church between the faithful and
their ministers). Ritual, convention, and reality are
mixed in varying proportion, bits of the past which have
acted as sources of inspiration or models are breathed
into the presenr (for example, aspects of the ancient
theatre or the Elizabethan stage) without being exactly
reproduced or reconstructed.
To these goals, other motives are added that tend to
orient quests and choices: the evolution of construction
techniques, and specifically that of scenic technology.
Developments in lighting allow the human form to be
accentuated; they create or fragment the playing area,
give rise to a greater fluidity in the relationship of space
and time on the stage. All the progress - mechanical,
hydraulic, electrical- ofren emerging in the midst of a
scientistic enthusiasm for things technical, favors the
mechanization of the stage and its spatial changes. Also,
the evolution of civilization itself, and of the arts, notably the plastic arts, occurs at least parallel to that of the
theatre, when the current of more or less evident and
profound influences is not weaving itself directly between one and the other.
Another banality: modern people are no longer reduced to their eyes and ears, hands and feet. They are
dedicated to simultanei ty, assailed by a torrent of information which besets them on all sides, in the most
diverse angles and modes (radio, film, television, etc.l.
Thus, there are profound changes in their mental field,
and the evolution of the plastic arts and the theatre bear
wi mess to this transformation. The scenography of discontinuous spaces as well as the environmental theatre
reflect this sitllation, demonstrating a parallel with certain currents of the plastic arts (the environments of
Kaprow, Oldenburg, Kienholz, etc.l. At the same time,
they borrow from the theatre of public place (from the
fairground to The Storming of the Win ter Palacel certain
of its structures and its ways of displaying the act of
theatre. Likewise, theatre spaces modeled on the circle - which increases the convergence of the viewers'
lines of sight-are not unrelated to the modes of inspiration of cubist space. I'm not suggesting that there is a
mechanistic connection between these different phenomena, but it's certain that a relationship exists, and
one that is not merely of chance.
After the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth came a whole series of proposals and experiments: an improved proscenium theatre, an open stage, an arena stage, theatre-inthe-round (in more or less expansive spaces, the circular
stage suggests action/spectator relationships that can
sometimes achieve an exciting mobilityj. And the latest
arrival: the transformable theatre.
In 1950, lean Vilar, already famous director of the
Festival d'Avignon, but not yet the director of the Theatre National Populaire, wrote:
The position of the stage with reference to the
audience, that is, the configuration and the dimensions of the stage floor in relationship to the seats,
also has its importance. Shakespeare, it seems,
wherever it is played, maintains its emotional
power. But Racine cannot be done JUSt anywhere
wi thout falsifying its proper resonance. Playa medieval mystery in one of our proscenium theatres,
TD&T

FALL 1987

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