Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1996 - 43

1995 season.
Camlcade I\as COI\ard's celebraton' but elegiac pageant of .10 \ears of British historI'. from the Boer War to the
onslaught of the Depression. Along the I\a\. in scenes more
tableaux l'iml/ts than drama. I\e see the death of Queen
Yictoria. the sinking of the Titanic. the 1918 .\rmistice. and
an L"pstairs-DOImstairs storI' of the shifling fortunes of an upper-class famil\ and their former Selyants.
\qlen it opened at the Theatre Ro\al. DnllY L;me. in Octo·
ber 1931. lIith a cast that included -100 e\"tms. Coward predicted
that it would ne\er be staged again. The Shall' production proI'ed
Cow,u'd IITong. lIith only -13 actors. a dog. ,md the scenic
econom\ of C,uneron POI1eous.
To mo\e actors and sellings quiclJ\ between dral\ing
rooms and parlors. bars and nightclubs. battlefields and
shipboard. Trafalgar Square. Charing Cross Station. Brighton
Pier, Kensington Gardens. Porteous marshalled all his resources-artistic. technical. and human.
"The whole design came out of a challenge to do this production I\ith this group of
people. and here's the problem: hOl\ can I\e
do some twenty scene changes in a piaI' that
reads in fifteen minutes and gi\e an e\ening's
entertainment' Plus the fact that the last act is
only [\\el\e minutes long: I\ill the\ e\en come
back for it' And hOl\ are I\e going to do this
I\ith quite a restrained budget for the size of
the piece'"
Porteous recalls that this time his process began I\ith technical necessities. I-Ie said
to \ell1on. "I ha\e to use projections." \el\ton replied. "Fine. good. good. but instead of
the projections being atmosphere, ma\be
thev can make statements, I\e GUI let people
in on some of the clues of I\hat's going on.
1-101\ manv people in the audience have e\"perienced the Boer War?"
With projections agreed. the ne\"t consideration I\as hoI\' to shift the scener\,. "I
also said I\e have to have a turntable. I\e just
can't do it without a turntable. What I I\ant is a doughnut
turntable. outer ring re\olving. center core staying in place. I
wanted to find a I\ay to have it counter-rOiating. so I could rotate the center core opposite to the outside ring. but in the
original production I\e ne\er did."
The o\erriding challenge to all departments was deadlines. "Could I\e create the COSlllmes on time. could we create the set on time. and could ~lan- ~Iorrison. my engineer
and construction manager. gi\e me a turntable which could
rep in twent\ minutes. Others sholl's lI'C1'e alread\ running. I
couldn't la\ a turntable dOlm in the middle of the rep. This
turntable had to come in. go dOlm. and come up in l\\ent\
minutes, because there I\as on1\ an hour and a half change
over betl\een shows. That had to be the shOll': the turntable
and the projections, that I\as the shol\."
.-\fler the practical considerations came aesthetics... ,
started to think of I\'hatthe screen l\'Ould be, because it just
can't be a black screen. I I\anted to create a container I\hich

I\as a Yictorian shape. and I thought about images of the great
Cr\stal Palace of Queen \-ictoria's time. and the glass dome of
a railll-a\ station or a COnSelyatolY that allOl\ed images from
the outside to come through. That's hOIl' it started. a nallened
\ersion of a Yictorian iron COnSelYatol~- of glass panels."
The multiple facets of the screen allOl\ed Porteous to
jll\"tapose images simultaneousl\ as commentar\, on each
other. as well as on the action taking place on slage belOl\.
One of the most memorable sets of images from the production emerged by necessity.:\ Queen \'ictoria lies eh'ing in
Kensington Palace. Londoners in somber clothes begin making their I\a\ to Kensington Gardens. In COI\ard's production.
a black iron railing stretched stage left to stage right as the
onh' scenic element. One line of mourners I\alked right to lefl
on one side of the fence. the other lefl to right on the opposite
side. As the\ passed. men l\'Quld tip their hats through the
fence to each other.

Porteous had to get the fence in and out in full \iel\'... ,
bent the fence." he sal's. "I had no choice. I bent the fence. It
I\as Christopher who suddenly realized that b\ bending the
fence. he could ha\e all the action take place on the other
side. so the actors are be[I\een the projections of ,Lllthese
bare trees in \o\ember going up into the mist. and the black
iron fence in the foreground."
:\[ the end of the scene. a lillie girl in a light-colored
dress runs out. making an eye-catching contrast in mlue.
scale. and tempo. "\01\ that has sort of become the trademark of the shOl\." Porteous sal's. "and it I\as a pure accident.
She I\as to come out in a black coat and a lillie bonnet in
black and appear at the fence. gazing through the fence. this
I\as IIhat COI\ard I\anted. Well. I\e II-ere late I\ith the cosllllnes. There are 1.-100 pieces in this shOll'. and this lillie girl's
cape I\as one of the lastlhings we created. She went throllgh
the lechnical rehearsals jllsl I\ith a rehearsal COSlllme."
Porteous's mice drops 10 a I\hisper, as he recounts his
TD&T

,I'

I" l,

-it

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1996