Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1999 - 22

John Mayberry

WINE, MUSIC AN

jolm Mayberry is

professor oftbeatre
production at York
niversit)' in Toronto
witb over tlllen~)' years
e.\perience working and
teacbing in tee/mical
tbeatre. He was cocurator oftbe Canadian
Student E.rbibitiou at
PQ'99 and is cbair oftbe
O/STAT Tecbnology
Commissioll.
20

All

TD&T

here's a chicken under the
table." And there was. A real
chicken. I guessed pretty quickly
that someone had opened a trap door in the
side of the building and thrust a chicken under
our table. All around the room, a large rough
wooden barracks roofed \vith wooden trusses
and canvas, I could see people at other tables
twisting to look through their knees as more
chickens were discovered, strutting around
the floor. It hasn't happened to me velY oftenfinding a chicken under me while having a
beer and watching a show. It was headshakingly funny. And very real.
Two men dressed identically in worker's
blues then entered by the only door, passed the
gypsy band, crossed the floor and went up to a
table of customers. "Excuse me," (a mixture
of french, Czech, and English)"' but, uh, rve
lost a... um, has anyone seen my... uh, irs
about. .. Oh! Sony, just a second... umf. ..
gotcha! Excuse me ... oops ... aha!'· And the
chickens were caught, gathered up, and quietly removed so we could continue to enjoy the
rest of the evening of Bouda-La Baraqueffhe
Hut (wine, music and soup).
It was Wednesday evening of the opening
week of PQ'99, and I had spent the last SL\
days overcoming jet-lag, working as part of the
Canadian team installing the national, architects', and students' exhibitions. I had toured
the PQ exhibitions, listening to speeches, looking at draWings and models, and trying to take
in over 4,000 scenographic images. I had
spent time learning to manoeuver around Prague. ordering Czech food, seeing the beautiful
sights of that most stage-like of cities. I had
seen a production of Don Giovallni by the ~a-
tional Marionette Theatre in a sweet little hall
with a half-scale proscenium. rd been to an afternoon recital for soprano, trumpet, and organ in St. Nicholas Church and listened to
Bach, Handel, and Purcell while revelling in

magnificent baroque sculptures; figures I recognized in Josef Svoboda's design for Tosca
the folloWing night. But now I was experiencing what I still describe as the best night I've
ever spent at the theatre.
Recommended by a local as the one show
not to miss, The Hut had turned out to be almost impossible to get tickets for. rd managed
to talk my way in, but even then I had no idea
what it was I was going to see. The program
notes, sinlilar in tlleir vagueness to tllOse of tlle
otller pieces being presented in Le Campement,
the performance sideshow next to the Industrial Palace, were intriguing:

Tbe program for Tbe Hut-La Baraque
space bas been created tbrougb tbe cooperation ofBrotbers Forman Tbeatre (JlJatej, Petr
and Milan) wbose world ofpuppets bas always belonged to botb cbildren and adults
and tbe famous Voliere Dromesko Tbeatre
(/gor and LiM wbicb peJformed across all
ofEurope in /990-/994 witb its tallle birds
andjlying artists. Tbe result is lIeitberpuppettbeatre nor "nell' circus. " Tbe creators of
tbis form bave resolute~1' stated tbat "it is
not all issue oftbeatre" but ratber a meeting place. A conscious demolition of tbe
barrier between tbe audience alld tbe stage
liberates botb spectators and actors and of
fers a possibili~1' ofa joint e.\perience. Tbe
Hut bas long wooden tables wbere as many
as /50 people can be seated, u/alls ofCanadian cedm; a ceiling of sail clotb, an old
dance jloOJ; music. u'ine and soup. All of
tbis in tbe compmzl' of actors. musicians
and tbe large marabou bird Cbarles ll'ill create a nomadic and el'en Gypsyatmospbere
ll'bicb ll'ill drau' tbe spectator into a secluded world u'bere evelytbing is possible.
('"'rhe Birth of Theatre out of a Pub Spirit.··
Vladimir Just; Literary Newspaper)
The easiest thing for me to say at this
point is that the program was right. Unlike

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