Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1987 - 53

MORE Contemporary Theatre
continued from fl. 9

ing, these empty spaces \,·ithin which new types of temporary stages and auditoriums are being built." He is
right: theatre magazines direct attention to numerous
micro-worlds, engineered for unrepeatable occasions by
master directors and their mechanics, each filled \I·ith
mimic life in powerful and surprising manife tation .
Audiences in many counrries are entranced by new experiences and afterward try to describe the unprecedented affair.
But now the time has come to consider the effect of
this new vogue. What does it promise~ Viill hollow
spaces, which can accommodate a series of elaborate and
temporary constructions, offer to theatre a robust and
frui tful future ~
Bablet begins his article with a brid survey of scenography during the last hundred years or so. The palace-like buildings of the nineteenrh century, exemplified by the Paris Opera of 1 75 - "when Italianate,
proscenium-style theatre attains it tate of absolute
perfection" - were replaced by later buildings "inspired
by the Greco-Roman theatre" and manifesting a "new
democratic \I. il I" in their "new relational configuration
between the audience and the dramatic action." An infinitely malleable theatre-void is then identified as the
logical developmenr of this salutary trend. As Bablet
tells the story, the advenr of hollow spaces appears to be
inevitable. When the stage-curtain which once revealed
an illu ionary world was taken away, new theatres were
given open, thrust, or arena stages. No one form prO\·ed
generally acceptable bnt flexible stages did not work
very well; and so all these solutions are now being rejected in favor of no stage at all and unimpeded interaction between audience and performers. Now spectators
are "immersed" in the drama, sharing its very being;
they are "suspended" Out of ordinary place and time,
entering a new world and leaving much el e behind.
Is this a \,·e!come progression~ Is it a rerum to primitive origins or a reflection of the very latest cultural and

social changes~ Is it the appropriate and necessary termination of a long process of adaptation to "modern
consciousness"~And what could be tbe next step~ Might
drama become unconfined in time as well as space, so
that it is anywhere and everywhere~ Will a theatre production be valued only when it achieves uniqueness in
every respect~ Does the future of theatre depend on the
ability of directors and scenographers to fill a void~ Or\,·e must also ask thi -is there another way of telling
the importanr story of how theatre space has changed~
How should theatre adapt to what is new in the world in
which it lives and by which it lives?

F

irst of all, has the story been told in the most comprehensive and convincing way? Can the same indisputable facts be explained differently~ We are told
that the master directors who envisioned and built the
theatres that replaced the old palaces were inspired by a
"democratic will," but is it not just as plausible that they
were seeking a greater mastery over their entire audience~ The new theatres would simplify the angles
from which their work was viewed, making them all
much the same, or the angles would be so varied that a
production could be presented like a three-dimensional
sculpture and so gain a new attention. Either way, the
directors had fresh scope and tighter control. 0 longer
would they have to contend with the vociferous and
independent group of viewers crowded tOgether up in the
"gods." Certainly the new buildings came into existence
at the very time when directors were becoming established as the most powerful functionaries in the profession. When audiences found they had a better view of the
action, they were probably on the directors' side, but in
our own day the still greater scope of an empty space has
been claimed by the second generation of directors and
their cenographers, nor by their audiences. Such theatre
spaces have nor been built by producers in answer to the
needs and demands of large audiences. M. Bablet's acCOUnt of the "problem of contemporary theatre space"

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FALL 1987

!51
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1987
