Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1992 - 29

slumped in rhe armchairs reading newspapers and smoking cigars, and rhe armchairs will ger pulled off on invisible
lines, so ir's like rhey're being blown inro
rhe wings. There's a lor of chopping and
changing of characrer, so some of
Orsino's couniers will fall our of rhe armchairs and become sailors for rhe shipwreck."
While eil Barden wanred his gender-bending Twelfth Night co cause audiences co examine rhe roles of men and
women, rhe producrion seems co have
merely caused disorienrarion. Once
again, as in New York, Richard Hudson
found himself singled our as whar Hedy
\Veiss in rhe Chicago Sun- Times called
"rhe unquesrioned srar of rhis Twelfth

Night."
Hudson's "dazzlingly memorable
srage picrures," she said, "rurned rhe
play's flcrional world of Illyria inco a
sreeply raked, off-kilrer splir screen rhar
keeps rhe eye conrenr, even when one's
ears are being assaulred by random,
apparenrly ad-libbed obsceniries and
cheap, campy one-liners." Weiss wenr on
co praise rhe ser's "added brilliance" when
"a scorm ar sea and a scorm of psychic
confusion are simulraneously suggesred
by rhe sudden wild spinning of an
upsrage revolving door and rhe careening

of a giam overhead lighr f1Xrure."
Richard Chrisriansen in rhe Chicago
Tribune was slighdy more symparheric co
Barden's inrenrions: "Since rwo major
rhemes of rhe comedy are rhe confusion
of rhe sexes and rhe alienarion of
srrangers in a foreign land, ir makes some
kind of sense co casr mosr of rhe male
roles wirh females and co use rwo young
black men ro ponray rhe casraway rwins
who find rhemse!ves ar loose in rhe whire
man's world of IIIyria."
Bur his conclusion was rhar "a more
polished and professional version is
expecred rhan rhe erraric, clunky and
boring rravesry rhar roo frequendy inrerruprs rhe clever conceprs and brighr
ideas."
Nor surprisingly, Chrisriansen liked
Hudson's visual conrriburion: "Placing
rhe comedy in a gianr hore! lobby wirh
Fesre, rhe clown, srarioned ar cenrer srage
wirh a grand piano as a kind of high-class
cabarer singer co spice up rhe acrion presenrs a picrure rhar is borh scriking and
handsome, especially in rhe bold choices
of scenery and cosrumes by rhe singular
london designer, Richard Hudson."
If he hasn'r been roo bruised by rhe
cri rical receprion of his rwo American
producrions, Hudson hopes for more
assignmenrs in rhis counrry. Meanwhile,

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he has a busy schedule ahead in Brirain
and Europe. In rhe spring of 1992 he and
Richard Jones will srage rhe london producrion of La Sere ar rhe Lyric Thearre,
Hammersmirh, and rhis summer he's
slared ro design The Queen ofSpades for
rhe Glyndebourne Fesrival. For rhe following season, he will design La Form del
Destino for Nicholas Hymer and rhe
English Narional Opera and The Tales of
Hoffmann for Andrei Serban ar rhe
Vienna Srarsoper.
Alrhough opera is his firsr love,
Hudson is becoming increasingly
inrrigued wirh drama, especially rhe classics. He says he would like ro do more
Ibsen, anyrhing by Racine or Moliere and
somerhing by Kleisr.
Is rhere any parricular projecr he'd
like? The man whose designs for rhe rheacre screrch rhe laws of graviry and suggesr a dangerously disordered universe
says dreamily, "I'd love co do a panromime, an English pamomime, Aladdin
or Sleeping Beaut)' or somerhing like
rhar."
ffi
Arnold Wengrow teaches and directs at

the Universit), of North Carolina at
Asheville. His article on Robert Redington
Sharpe appeared in the Winter 1990 issue
ofTD&T.

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1992 SPRING

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