TECHNOLOGY AND THE SEARCH FOR IN NEW METAPHYSICS PRAGUE by RANDY GENER If the Chicago director Mary Zimmerman had her druthers, Estonia would have won a gold medal for best realization of a production at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial. Instead, she was overruled, and this coveted prize for best scenic design was shared this year by Germany (for its 2005 Macbeth at Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus) and South Africa (for designer/director Brett Bailey's medEia). The lone director among PQ 2007's eleven-member jury, Zimmerman had advocated for Estonia because its video-installation display-three screens showing Theatre NO99's 2006 production of Alfred Jarry's King Ubu, staged by designer Ene-Liis Semper and co-director Tiit Ojasoo-offered a complete sense of what was actually performed by twelve actors and two camera operators on an abandoned Soviet military airfeld on the west coast of that European country. "On three screens, you basically saw the whole show," Zimmerman said. "The cameras, video screens and camera men were clearly part of the show. The film showed people from the very beginning, arriv- germany PHOTO BY RICHARD FINKELSTEIN THEATRE F A L L 2007 DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY 57