The scenographic interpretation and staged presentation while being visually
strong, appropriate, gritty, it is an effective and versatile design solution
to addressing not only the needs of the script but also the needs of a touring
production where the set has to have a flexibility fit the stage of the host
theatres.
The collaboration between the Director and Designer is evidenced in the
fast moving choreographed direction of the performers as they not only use the
attributes of the set/performance space but as they set and strike the props
and dressings.
The central performance space is tight evoking the claustrophobia of the
trenches, tunnels and dugouts of the Western front. The stage right wall of the set is depicted
as the exterior ruined stone wall of a church with two gothic arches for access
on and off stage. Up stage right had a ladder leading up to a parapet which
formed a raised rostrum running across the back of the set with access to
tunnels upstage right and left. A cut-out profile of debris, broken telegraph
poles and beams supporting runs of unfurled barbed wire runs along the upstage
edge of the parapet forming a ground-row against a stretched cyclorama cloth.
The parapet runs off upstage left behind a balcony on the up stage left corner;
the balcony is accessed by a door in the stage left flat. Down stage in the
stage left flattage there is a large swinging panel which, when swung onstage
represents the interior of a French country house, when swung off stage it
provides and exit.
The Costume Design while being sympathetic to the characters, the period
and the environment of the play they allowed for the many quick changes
necessary to the performance.
The Lighting Design and the lighting changes were very supportive of the
script and supported the psychological immersion of the audience into the
performance, so much so that the counterpoint of explosions when they occurred
accompanied by lighting flashes engendered the desired shock.
The dimly lit set is visible to the audience as they take their seats. The
performance opens gently with the quiet arrival on stage of some of the
characters and as a subtle light change lifts the darkness revealing the trench
& tunnel entrance they add voice and music to the scene.
The play is scripted to open in or behind a trench in the Somme area on
the western front during WWI. The set also incorporates other visual spaces for
flashback scenes set before the war in 1910 in a French domestic interior and an
outdoor picnic area in Amiens, an officers dugout, a café/bar, and the claustrophobic
interior of the clammy, terrifying subterranean mine with the enemy trench in
the fresh, birdsong filled air above it.
Victoria
Spearing successfully amalgamates
the interior-exterior, subterranean spaces and presents the set in a generic
earth, muddy, camouflage pallet of appropriately gloomy colours with a rich
texture of imbedded higgledy-piggledy bits of broken timbers, boxes, doors,
trench ladder, bricks, etc. with the debris blending down and onto the painted
sheeted stage covering. The design goes some distance in allowing for the
seamless, smooth, unfolding of the play, in that it minimises the interruption of
scene changes on the immersive engagement of the audience in the performance.
The theatrical immersive engagement is supported by the smooth resetting of the furniture, dressing props
and hand props by the in-character cast during the performance.
Alex Wardel’s lighting effects on the cyclorama cloth are well synchronised
with Dominic Bilkey’s sound effects in accentuating the dramatic moments of attack,
explosion and terror as much as the moments of quiet, birdsong, or of the dark,
doom-laden oppressive silence of the
collapsed mine.
Costume Designer, Ed
Holland’s costume concepts ably
capture the images of the grime covered, hot, sweaty miners, the trench warfare
dirt and grime on the military uniforms and the contrasting crisp, smartness of
the same military uniforms when on parade. The 1910, French civilian and domestic
characters are convincingly supported by the costume design.
The
un-credited Hair and Make-up Artist/Designer ably and convincingly supported
the performers in their character with unkempt hair, dirty grimy appearances, the
smart, sharp look of the military and groomed look of the 1910, French civilian and domestic
characters; all in all a
visually consistent and convincing presentation.
The
programme at a Fiver (€5) was good value, full of useful content such as the Writer’s
thoughts on the adoption of his book for stage, an interview with Playwright
Rachel Wagstaff, an informative account on the secrets of tunnel warfare during
WWI, a WWI timeline from January 1914 to November 1918, A soldiers life in the
trenches, short biographies on the artists, company and all concerned. All this
material gives their insight into some of the thought process behind the
concept development. Such input from the Writers, Playwrights, Director, Designers,
etc. is of immense value to students of Performance, Design for Performance and
Design for Stage and Screen and is to be encouraged and when provided, welcomed.
Sebastian
Faulks: http://www.sebastianfaulks.com/
Rachel
Wagstaff: http://unitedagents.co.uk/rachel-wagstaff
Alastair
Whatley: http://www.originaltheatre.com/?p=58
Victoria
Spearing: http://www.birdsongthetour.com/#/victorai-spearing/4569550076
The Gaiety
Theatre: http://gaietytheatre.ie/
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