Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 33

Figure 1. Jaroslav Malina's rendering for Miss Julie.
(Photo by Del Unruh)

Figure 2. Jan Dusek's rendering for Danton's Death.
(Photo by Hana Smejkalova)

arts are repeatedly cut, and theatres now operate with very little
money. The theatre plants that were built up by the Communists, and
there were many of them, are now deteriorating under Capitalism.
Talented and able theatre workers now watch their physical facilities fall
apart and they are powerless to stop it. The natural, human reaction to
this is to view the current political situation as somehow a betrayal of
their efforts. Consequently there is a pervading sense of cynicism in
the Prague theatre and, paradoxically, growing nostalgia for the Socialist past. Theatre artists feel that the economic prosperity of the
West and the intellectual excitement of Post Modernism have passed
them by. Economic progress seems to be beyond the influence of the
theatre workers, however they feel they can work quickly to make up
the intellectual difference. There is a sense of cynicism about the
past and a desire to recapture an intellectual leadership by creating
what Ondrej Cerny´, director of the Theatre Institute in Prague, and
other theoreticians call a "Post-Post Modernism" in the theatre. This
sensibility is not confined to any single form of theatre. It is evident in
opera, drama, dance, and it has moved the theatre in Prague into new directions. Some examples will show the fascinating and bewildering results of this.
A current production of Gounod's opera, Romeo and Juliet at the
National Theatre contains many of the principles of this new view. Directed by Jozef Bednárik, the production was an attempt on the part of
the National Theatre to bring on stage the fruits of its search over the past
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few years for a modern style of opera production (Herman 1994, 53).
With set designer Ladislav Vychodil and costume designer Ludmila
Várossová, Bednárik conceptualized a production that presented a devastated society in which ethics and morality no longer governed human
relationships.
The setting was a monumental three-level construction that filled
the stage of the National Theatre. The lower level was a gritty rendition of a
street with entrances to automobile parking lots, a broken escalator and directional signs. The majority of the action took place in this tough environment. The second level had three open areas with tables and chairs
and was used by people who were removed from the action and looked
down on the lower level with a kind of detached irony. A fourth area, a
large crate with the letters "CAPUL" painted on it, served as Juliet's room/balcony when the front of the crate was lowered to allow us to see inside it. The
upper area, seen through a scrim was a heavenly vision of trees and
clouds where characters who had been killed in the opera were allowed
to go. Access to it was via a construction lift (Figure 3).
The costumes were a fanciful blending of period and contemporary
details. The Duke appeared in a variation of Renaissance attire, the
Capulets and Montagues in fashionable "1940s Gangster" attire, with
their various retinues dressed in military gear and carrying Uzis.
Mercuito was on roller blades and, along with Romeo's other friends,
was dressed in blue jeans and jacket.
There was a wealth of realistic detail in the production and this
alone would make it a rather remarkable and confrontational production in the Czech theatre inasmuch as the realistic style has been out of
favor for many years. However, there was another major conceptual decision in the production that foregrounded the cynical view that underlies
this new production style in the Prague theatre.
Bednárik's conceptualization inserted, in the form of dancers, four
additional characters into the opera. Two ballet dancers in white represented the "Souls of Romeo and Juliet" (Figure 4). Another two modern
dancers, dressed in, by what has now become a cliché in the Czech theatre-black, studded leather "sado-masochism" attire-represented
the "Wrath of the Capulets" and the "Hate of the Montagues." During the
progression of the opera these four characters were almost constantly on
stage.
"Wrath," "Hate" and the "Souls..." kept intruding into the action.
It was not uncommon for Romeo or Juliet to be singing a solo aria, and
one or both of these pairs would be cavorting around onstage. The result
was that the singers were given nothing to do but just stand and try to stay
out of the way as the dancers illustrated or illuminated or overstated or
trivialized the action-depending on your point of view. At the end,
"Wrath" and "Hate" moved downstage and were left in front of the curtain leering at us. The creators of this production hoped that this would
cause the audience to ask if the world was to belong to them. Another
reading of this might suggest that it was a pessimistic statement about the
triumph of Evil.
About forty years ago, scenography came into prominence in the
Czech theatre with its insistence that illustration had no place on the
stage. It opened up a new appreciation of the power of metaphor. The
development of Action Design that happened about twenty years later
built upon the principle of metaphor and restored the primacy of the actor because it focused the entire stage effect on the actor.
Now the reverse is happening in the New Avant-Garde theatre. The action-the things the actors do-is being illustrated, in this example by a
companion cast. In this process the work of the actors is being diminished.

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