Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1992 - 41

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and
suburbs
spawned a
ra h of new theatre
buildings in the past
decade. Responding w
a felt need for identity
and for a stamp of legitimacy, these thearres provide
roadhouse venues w satisfy a
taste for culrure in a mild entertainment sauce. The hierarchy of
concerns is everywhere apparent:
most imponant is the lobby, the audiwrium and, of course, the parking 10L
The stage itself is of small consequence: a
conventional proscenium withour flies.
The agenda of these undenakings is not
w quesrion, bur w confirm; not w provoke, but w reassure. These buildings are
primarily symbols of civic pride and
coming-of-age. Ir is in facr coincidental
that they have a stage.
Ironically, what is happening in several places in Europe points ro another
way. It is in found spaces, convened w
thearrical use, that many non-conventional approaches w consrructing a thearre are taking place. These theatres are
more like laborarories for performance
that is somewhat more acrual. IlIusrrative
of this approach is a company in
Anrwerp, Belgium called the Raam Thearre, its anistic direcror, Walter Tillemans, and a recent producrion designed
there by the architecr and scenographer
Josef Svoboda.
The Raam Thearre (literally, Window
Thearre) operates from two such convened spaces. The most recently developed of
the two (called Op t' Zuid) was convened
by its direcror Tillemans from an old
museum building built near the rum of
this century. The space had functioned
both as a museum and an exhibition
hall for the display of ores and gems,
~
most notably from the Belgian
Congo; Antwerp continues wday
as a leading city of the interna~
tional diamond rrade.
After removing a drop- '"
Ml'\.
ped ceiling which had
" '.
been installed for the use
~
of an interim school,
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Tillemans discovered
~O
the original space:
a four-srory gal~
leria with full
sky-lighted
- '"
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ceil1 n g
and an
atelierloft above.
Cast-iron
construction
prevails throughout, especially in
the structure of the
glass ceiling and roof.
A regular rhythm of 24
cast-iron columns provides
the frame for the rectangular
opening of the gallery, and
cast-iron railings link each column on every floor. The rectangular
vaulted opening is approximately 30 by
50 feeL Ten feet back from these railings
on each side, and 20 feet back on each
end, are the walls, lined with glassdoored exhibit cases. The entire space is
midnight blue.
How w work in such a space? After
being wid that convening this building
w a theatre would be impossible, \X1alter
Tillemans rook the challenge and proceeded regardless. He also knew Svoboda.
The recent production of Max Frisch's
The Firebugs (1991) is an example of the
marriage of a text with the unique propenies of a space, and a good illusrrarion
of how such spaces can be used.
Max Frisch became well known internationally in rhe 1950s along with his
Swiss-German contemporary Friedrich
Dlirrenmatr. The Firebugs, perhaps his
best known play, concerns the choices in
the life of a self-satisfied, self-congratularory burgher when visited by rwo

strangers
who insinuate themselves
in ro his anic. After a
surprising series of verbal
intimidations and manipulations, the burgher anempts ro buy
off what we begin w recognize as a visitation of evil. The play has been called a
srudy of cowardice and conscience. The
director, Henning Brockhaus, has
worked with Svoboda previously, most
notably at the Picolo Teatro in Milan.
The informing idea for rhe design is a
wire-mesh grid which covers the entire
opening of the gallery space at the level
of the first railing, approximately 18 feet
above the acting area. Since the acting
area and the audience are on the ground
level, the grid covers the heads of the
audience as well. The grid is 5 mm
woven-wire material, available industrially and conventionally used in concrete
pours. The grid tends ro disappear visually while substantially providing the acring area for the anic scenes of the play. It
provides the audience with a unique
point of view, looking up through a foreshonened perspecrive on rhe acrors, ro a
vaulting space four srories high. Ir is a
remarkable perspective, one thar is ideal
for figure drawing classes in the afternoons.
The dramatic possibilities of playing
on an acting area which is literally cast in
TD&T

1992 SPRING

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1992