Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991 - 22

infideliry and murder. The play opened on l O\'ember 19
under rhe ride of Claire Adams and was greered by an audience
which "laughed jeeringly in rhe wrong places." Ir expired afrer
seven performances. Sharpe's serring of a dingy one-room
Greenwich Village apanment went unnoriced.
Srill, rhis was nor a serious serback. Almosr immediarely, he
signed a contracr wirh John Golden ro design Even in Egypt, a
farcical re-relling of rhe Biblical srory of Joseph's rise from slave
ro Pharaoh's righr-hand man. George Jessel was ro play Joseph.
This seemed like a projecr suired ro Sharpe's ralenrs for exoric
serrings in a decorarive, whimsical sryle. Bur for some reason,
perhaps a heavy-handed inrerprerarion by rhe direcror, Sharpe's
imaginarion did nor soar. His skerches of decorarive derail for
rhe scene painrer are filled wirh hieroglyphic flowers, birds,
sralks, dors, dashes and borders, bur ir is alilireral and dull.
There is one scene design for rhe producrion among rhe
drawings, however, a charcoal skerch wirh no norarions for
color, rhar shows a real advance in Sharpe's work. Ie is one of
rhe mosr archjrecrurally solid, visually dynamic of all his
serrings. Depicring a courryard of an
Egyprian house, rhe serring uses low
plarforms placed ar angles ro a wall ar rhe
back ro creare space borh enclosing rhe
acrors and receding into rhe disrance. A saillike canopy over a couch on a dais is a
graceful conrrasr ro rhe angles of rhe walls
and rhe verricals of rhe columns and a
means of leading rhe eye inro rhe
background space. For rhe firsr rime, Sharpe
managed ro move away from his usual ser of
flar planes behind acrors ro a series of
volumes inhabired by acrors.
The producrion previewed in January
1930 in Philadelphia ro a lukewarm
receprion. George S. Kaufman was broughr
in ro righren up rhe scripr and sharpen rhe
humor. Bur when ir opened under rhe new
ririe Joseph in New York on 12 February
1930, Brooks Arkinson pronounced ir only
spasmodically enrerraining and "rhin ro rhe
poinr of rransparency." Ir closed afrer 13
performances.
Six months elapsed before he gor anorher commission and
when ir came, ir was for rhree innocuous serrings in rhe 68scene Earl Carroll's Vanities. Glamorous chorines in glorious
follies specracle had passed him by forever.
The season of 1930-31 was half-way rhrough and Sharpe
srill had no work. He rried during rhis period of enforced
idleness ro locare a new scenic sryle, or ar leasr a more saleable
one. He wrore an arricle, "Where Symbolism Marrers," for rhe
March issue of Theatre Magazine, in which he said rhar scenery
should interprer mood rarher rhan realisrically represenr locale;
rhe mood should be reduced ro rhe simplesr visual symbols
selecred for rheir subdery and suggesriveness. He royed wirh his
designs for Major Barbam, absrracring rhem and forcing rhem
inro rhe solids and voids rhar Bel Geddes had urged on him ren
years beFore. He chose lv/ajar Barbam no doubr because as his
one New York accomplishmenr ro dare, ir mighr reinforce his
now Fading connecrion wirh rhe Thearre Guild. He submirred
his reworked designs ro Theatre Arts Month6\ which published
rhem in June under rhe ririe "Sreps in rhe Developmenr of a
Space Srage."
UnForrunarely, rhe modernisr aesrhcric which Sharpe

admired and rried so durifully ro adopr was fundamenrally
uncongenial ro his ralenrs. He did nor have rhe sramina ro
adhere ro his own vision or rhe originaliry ro forge a new
painrerly sryle in opposirion ro rhe prevailing ride. Sharpe's
clippings scrapbook ar Harvard includes designs by Simonson,
Jones, Bel Geddes, Jo Mielziner and Terrence Gray, bur rhere is
lirde ro indicare he looked ro rhe designers and painrers from
whom he mighr have drawn rhe besr susrenance: Joseph Urban,
Baksr, Goncharova, Larionov, Braque, Marisse and Picasso. His
rhearre-going lisr ar Harvard shows rhar until rhe lasr few
monrhs of his life he was oblivious ro opera and baller, forms
where he mighr have found an anisric home.
n rhe summer of 1931, Sharpe made a nosralgic rerrear ro
rhe Pasadena Communiry Playhouse. He lecrured ro
srudenrs ar rhe Playhouse's School and rhen srayed on
rhrough rhe 1931-32 season as guesr designer for six
producrions. The mosr inreresring of rhese were rhe firsr
English-language producrion of Richard Beer-Hofmann's Jacob's
Dream, norable for urilizing Sharpe's own
rranslarion, and Dragon's Teeth, an
expressionisr moraliry play by Shirland
Quin on rhe evils of modern warFare.
The 11 cosrume drawings For Dmgon's
Teeth show rhar Sharpe was arrisrically back
home, crearing, as he had in HassaN, a
richly symbolic visual exrravaganza. The
panorama of allegorical characrers gave his
groresquerie space ro unfurl: Engineers wirh
whire Faces Framed in cogwheels; greenFaced Chemisrs wearing hars shaped like
aromic srrucrures; Airmen of rhe Apocalypse carrying emblems of poison-gas,
bombs and dynamire; and Dearh, played by
Sharpe himself, dressed in a black, cowled
robe emblazoned wjrh a whire skeleron, his
hands grear ralons, his cape suggesring
vampire wings and rhe whole Figure
entwined wirh green worms. Ie was Sharpe's
ironic revenge on rhe Follies, a Fashion
parade of horrors.
Bur Sharpe was nor ready ro serrle back
inro rhe comForrable rourine of Pasadena. Alrhough rhe ew
York rhearre was in rhe pir of rhe Depression, wirh only halF irs
rhearres in use and only halF irs acrors employed, ir was rhere
rhar he was derermined ro make his mark. His experience in
designing hisrorically accurare period plays may have been rhe
decisive Facror in obraining rhe commission in ovember For
Helen Menken's producrion of Saint Wench, a muddled
cosrume comedy by John Col ron, aurhor of rhe dramarizarion
of Rain. Miss Menken was ro srar as rhe ficrional 16rh cenrury
Sainr Mara of Trabia, who as a young girl berrorhed ro a priesr
surrenders ro a dashing bandir and spends rhe resr of her liFe
aroning, unril she becomes a sainr wirh powers of healing. The
improbabiliry of rhe plor was marched only by rhe ineprness of
rhe producrion. After rhe 2 January 1933 opening, John Mason
Brown piled on rhe epirhcrs in rhe ew York Euening Post:
"c1aprrap of rhe silliesr kind," "as woeful a sample of elaborare
cosrume nonsense as rhc local rhearre has produced in many
years." Hc exempred Sharpe, however, by saying rhar ir was
"skillFully sec." Brooks Arkinson in rhe Times was only a lirrle
less gleeful in his condemnarion of rhe play, bur hc roo had
words of praise For Sharpe, saying rhar rhe serring had "a cool

"No matter their
opinions of Tobacco
Road itself, the
critics admired
Sharpe's setting for
its accuracy and
.
appropnateness,
calling it 'better
drama than most
decor or most
'"
I
pays.

1991

WINTER

TD&T

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1991