Space
is an important element in drama since the stage itself also represents a space
where action is presented. One must of course not forget that types of stage
have changed in the history of the theatre and that is has also influenced the
way plays were performed (see Types of Stage ch 3 8). The analysis of places
and setting in plays can help one get a better feel for character and their
behavior but also for the overall atmosphere. Plays the secondary text
provides detailed spatio-temporal descriptions, one finds hardly anything in
the way of secondary text in Shakespeare (see Gurr and Ichikawa 2000).
The
stage set quite literally ‘set the scene’ for a play in that it already conveys
a certain tone, e.g, one of desolation and poverty or mystery and secrecy. The
fact that the description of the stage sets in the secondary text is sometimes
very detailed and sometimes hardly worth mentioning is another crucial starting
point of further analysis since that can tell us something about more general
functions of settings.
Actual
productions frequently invent their own set, independent of the information
provided in a text. Thus, a very detailed set with lots of stage props may
simply be used to show off theatrical equipment. In Victorian melodrama (see ch
3 9 2), for example, even horses were
brought on stage in order to make the ‘show’ more appealing but also to
demonstrate a theatre’s wealth and ability to provide expensive costumes,
background paintings, etc. A more detailed stage set also aims at creating an
illusion of realism, i.e, the scene presented on stage is meant to be as
true-to-life as possible and the audience is expected to succumb to that
illusion. At the same time, a detailed set draws attention to problems of an
individual’s milieu, for example, or background in general. This was particularly
important in naturalist writing, which was permised on the idea that a person’s
character and behavior are largely determined by his or her social context.
By
contrast, if detail is missing in the presentation of the setting, whether in
the text or in production, that obviously also has a reason. Sometimes, plays
do not employ detailed settings because they do not aim at presenting an
individualized, personal background but a general scenario that could be placed
anywhere and affect anyone. The stage set in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, for
example, is really bare: “A country road. A tree” One can argue that this
minimal set highlights the characters’ uprootedness and underlines that play’s
focus on human existance in general.
WORD
SCENERY
Since
drama is multimedial, the visual aspect inevitably plays an important role. The
layout/overall appearance of the set is usually described in stage directions
of descriptions at the beginning scenes. Thus, all the necessary stage props
(i.e properties used on stage such as furniture, accessories, etc) and possibly
stage painting can be presented verbally in secondary texts which is than
translated into an actual visualisation on stage. One must not forget that
director are of course free to interpret secondary texts in different ways and
thus to create innovate renditions of plays. An example is Richard Loncraine’s
1996 film version of Shakespeare's Richard III, where the play is set in the
1930s.
The
set or, precisely, what it is supposed to represent, can also be conveyed in the
characters’ speech. In Elizabethan times, for example, where the set was rather
bare with little stage props and no background scenery, the spatio-temporal
framework of a scene had to be provided by characters’ references to it. The
jester Trinculo in Shakespeare's The tempest, for example, gives the following
description of the island and the weather:
Here’s
neither bush nor shurb to bear off any weather at all, and another storm
brewing; I her it sing i’ the wind Yond same back could, yond huge one, looks
like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder as it did
before I know not where to hide my head, yond same could cannot choose but fall
by pailfuls. (The Tempest, II, 2: 19-23)
While
Elizabethan theatre goers could not actually ‘see’ a could on stage, they
invited to imagine it in their mind’s eye. The setting was thus created
rhetorically as word scenery rather than by means of painted canvas, stage
props and artifical lighting (which was not common practice until the
Restoration period).
SETTING
AND CHARACTERIZATION
The
setting can be used as a means of indirect characterization. Thus, the
anonymity and unloving atmosphere among the character in Edward Bond’s play
saved is anticipated by and mirrored in the barrenesss of the stage set only
where the most necessary pices and furnitures are presented but nothing that
would give Pam’s parents’ flat a more personal touch. The characters in William
Congreve’s The way of the world, by comparison, are implicitly are characterized
as high society because they meet in cofee-houses, St. James’ Park and posh
private salons. A close look at the setting can thus contribute to a better
understanding of the characters and their behavior.
SYMBOLIC
SPACE
Another
important factor to consider in this context is the interrelateness of setting
and plot. Obviously, the plot of a play is represented in a vacuum but always
against the background of the specific scenery and often the setting corresponds
with what is going on in the storyboard. Thus, the storm at the beginning of
Shakespeare's The Tempest not only starts off the play and functions as an
effective background to the action but it also reflect the ‘disorder’ in which
the characters find themselves at the beginning: Antonio unlawfully hold the
position of his brother, Prospero; Sebastian is wiling to get rid of his
brother, King Alons, in order to take his place; and the savage and deformed
salve Caliban broods on revenge against his self-appointed master, Prospero.
The lack of place and order in the social world is thus analogous to chaos and
destruction in the natural world. Likewise, in Shakespeare's King Lear, a strom
signifies disorder when King Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan turn in their
father out of doors although they had vowed their affection for him and had
received theit share of the kingdom in return In a mindsummer Night’s Dream,
the secretive and highly sexual atmosphere is underlines by the dark forest at
midnight, in which fog and darkness partly support but also thwart the
characters’ secret plans and actions. One can say that rather than only
functioning as a background or creating a certain atmosphere, these spaces
become symbolic spaces as they point towards other levels of meaning at the
text. The setting can thus support the expression of the world view current at
a certain time or general philosophical, ethical and moral questions.
SO
WHAT?
Nowadays,
theatre are equipped with all sorts sets, props and technical machinery which
allow for a wide range of audiovisual effects. When analyzing plays, it is
therefore worthwhile asking to what purpose. One important question one can
ask, for example, is whether space is presented in detail or only in general
terms. Consider the following introductory commentary form Sean O’Casey’s Juno
and the Paycock:
The
living-room of a two-room tenancy occupied by the Boyle family in a certain
tenement house in Dublin. Left, a door leading to another part of the house;
left of door a window looking into the street; at back a dresser; father to
right at back, a window looking into the back of the house. Between window and
the multimedial desser is a picture of the Virgin; below the picture, on a bracket is a
crimson bowl in which a floating yotive ligh is burning. Farther to the right is
a small bed partly concealed by certonne hangings strung on a twine. To the
right is the fire place is a door leading to the other room. Beside the
fireplace is a box containing coal. On the mantelshelf is an alarm clock lying
on its face. In a corner near the window looking into the back is a galvanised
bath. A table and some chairs. On the table are breakfast things for one. A
teapot is on the hob and a frying-pan stands inside the fender: There are the
view books on the dresser and one on the table. Learning against the dresser is
a long-handled shovel-the kind invariably used by labourers when turning
concrete or mixing morthar. [ ... ]
What
strikes one immediately is the minute precision with which the set is
organised. Not only do we get a great number of event a small stage porps
(picture, books, coal box, breakfast things, ets.) but their relative position
to one other is also exactly described. If one considers that this is the very
detailed and realistic picture of a working-class home. The shovel indicates
the social background of the people who live in the flat, and the fact that it
is only a two-room flat points towards their relative property. The setting
tells us even more about the family. Thus, we can conclude from the picture of
the Virgin Mary and the floating votive light that this must be a religious
family or at least a family which lives according to the Irish Catholic
tradition. Furthermore, we identify a potential discrepancy when we look at the
books. While the small number of the books suggests on the one hand that the
people who live there are not highly educated, the fact that there are books at
all also indicates that at least someone in the family must be interested in
reading. The text itself continues by explaining who that person is, Mary, and
another member of the family, Johnny Boyle, is also introduced. We are even
given information on Mary’s inner conflict caused by her background on the one
hand and her knowledge of literature on the other hand. Just as the first
appearance of two of the characters blends in with a pictorial presentation of
the setting, Mary and Johnny also seem to ‘belong’ to or be marked by that
background. In other words: The naturalistic setting is used as indirect characterization
and defines the characters’ conflict or struggles.
Sometimes
a bare stage indicates the play’s focus on the characters’ inner lives
consciousness, and technical devices and stage props are mainly used to
empasise or or underline them. Consider the setting in Peter Shaffer’s play
Equus :
A
suare of wood set on a circle of wood. The square resembles a railed boxing
ring. The rail also of wood, encloses three sides. It is perforated on each
side by an opening. Under the rail are few vertical slats, as if in a fence. On
the downstage side there is no rail. The whole square is set on ball bearings,
so that by slight pressure from actors standing round it on the circle, it can
be made to turn round smoothly by hand. On the square are set three little plain
benches, also of wood. They are placed parallel with the rail, against the
salts, but can be moved out by the aciors to stand at right angels to them. Set
into the floar of the square, and flush with it, is a thin metal pole, about a
yard high. This can be raised out of the floor, to stand upright. It act as a
support for the actor playing Nugget, when he is ridden. In the area outside
the circle stand bences. Two outstage left and right are moved to accord with
the circle. The left one is used by Dysart as a listening and observing post
when he is out of the square, and also by Alan as his hospital bed. The right
one is used by Alan’s parents, who sit side by side on it. (viewpoint is from
the main body of the audience.). Further branch stand upstage, and accomodate
the other actors. All the case of Equus sits on stage the entire evening. They
getup to perform their scenes, and turn when they are down to their places
around te set. They are withnesses, assistans – and especially a Chorus.
Upstage, forming a backdrop to the whole, are tries of seats in the fashion of
a dissecting theatre, formed into two railed-off blocks, pierced by a central
tunnel. In these blocks sit members of the audience. Durning the play, Dysart
addresses them directly from time to time, as he addresses the main body of the
theatre. No other actor ever refers to them. To left and right, downstage,
stand two ladders on which are suspended horse masks. The colour of all
brenches is olive green.
What
strikes one immediately when looking at this stage set is that it does not
event try to be realistic.
Whether scenes take place in Dysert’s practice, in
Alan’s home or in the stables, There is no furniture or other stage props to
indicate this. The horses are played by the actors who simply put on horse
masks but this is done on stage so that the audience is reminded of the fact
that it is watching a play. The alternation of scenes is marked by the usage of
different parts of the stage(upstairs, downstairs) and time shifts become
noticeable through changing lights. The stage seems to be arranged like this
intentionally and one can ask why. First and foremost, the set lacks detail so
that attention can be drawn to be performance of the actors. Secondly, what the
actors perform is thus also moved to the centre, namely Alan’s psychological
development, his consciousness and memories. Put another way, the focus is on
mental processes rather than on social factors (although they of course
influence Alan’s development and are thus also brough on stage, albeit
symbolically and rhetorically rather than realistically).
