Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2014 - 44

(I) showed him the trial proofs for the Virgil on our paper
and suggested that my Press might publish a book on this
paper, with his figures and woodcuts. I thought perhaps a
play by Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra or Macbeth,
with prints from his wooden figures, and other woodcuts,
which would represent the effect created by the screens on
his stage. . . . Craig accepted my proposal but said, "If we
are to do something, why not Hamlet?" He asked me too
whether I thought it possible to use outlines of the screen
configurations in the text. He proposed to recreate the stage
effects by printing rectangular blocks in different tones of
black and grey. (Kessler 1911)

Kessler told Craig to set his own terms, and once these were
agreed upon, the collaboration began. It was the start of a process that would come to fruition with the publication of the Cranach Press Hamlet nearly twenty years later.
By the time Craig and Kessler began their collaboration in 1911,
Craig had formulated many of the theories of theatrical production
that were to make him such an influential figure in the modern
theatre. Craig first set forth these ideas in a 1905 essay, "The Art

of the Theatre: The First Dialogue," later published in The Art of
the Theatre (1911). At the core of the essay is Craig's statement
that the theatre is a unique art form equal to all of the other arts
of poetry, music, visual art, and architecture. This newly equal
art form, he asserted, has its own particular aesthetic principles
and its own particular means of expression. As with a work in
the other arts, the creation of a work of theatrical art must be the
product of a single creative individual, the stage director.

In the "The Actor and the Über-marionette," an essay
Craig published in his periodical The Mask (1908-1929, Craig
further refined his views about the theatre of the future: "Acting
is not an art. It is therefore incorrect to speak of the actor as
an artist. For accident is the enemy of the artist. Art is the exact
antithesis of pandemonium, and pandemonium is created by
the tumbling together of many accidents. Art arrives only by
design. Therefore to make any work of art it is clear that we
may only work in those materials with which we can calculate.
Man is not one of those materials."
These ideas form the theoretical foundations for Craig's
greatly loved and greatly misunderstood über-marionettes.
Craig had always been interested in puppets; he explored this
interest in "Gentlemen, the Marionette," published in 1912 in
The Mask. In this article he extols the virtues of the marionette,
among which are "noble artificiality," silence, and obedience.
These traits are in sharp contrast to those of human actors,
who are "real," outspoken, and generally disobedient. Craig
also praises another essential quality of the marionette, that of
innate spiritual expressiveness:
There is only one actor-nay, one man-who has the soul
of the dramatic poet and who has ever served as the true and
loyal interpreter of the poet. This is the Marionette. . . . You
have come across him in some deserted cathedral in Italy or
even in England...There you will have seen him hanging upon
the Cross ... He is interpreting the Drama of the Poets-Man
and God ... Or you have caught a glimpse of him in some
temple in the Far East, enacting a more serene drama...Or in
the arms of a child you have seen him, interpreting the little
hearts and the larger dreams of love! (Craig 1912)

It is not surprising that Craig chose Hamlet for his collaboration with Kessler and the Cranach Press. The play had
long been the subject of his artistic musings. As a boy he had
seen many times the notable Henry Irving/Ellen Terry production of the play at the Lyceum Theatre in 1885. A highpoint of
his own acting career had been his portrayal of the title role
in London and the provinces in 1896 (fig. 7). Craig frequently
referred to Hamlet in his early writings and used scenes from
the play as he conducted experiments with his system of mobile
screens in a model theatre in Florence beginning in 1907. As
a director who came to be known for his trademark desire to
control all of the elements of a production, it is highly possible
that Craig was also greatly intrigued by the way that Hamlet controls events as they unfold over the course of the play.
It is also not surprising that Craig's illustrations for the
Cranach Press Hamlet are in the form of woodblock prints.
Kessler and Craig were most interested in an essential unity of

n Figure 6. Edward Gordon Craig with a marionette. Florence, 1914.

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