Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2018 - 24

That first season, the festival mounted 22 performances of Richard III and
21 performances of All's Well that Ends
Well, both starring Sir Alec Guinness
and Irene Worth. But Moiseiwitsch's
stage was also a star attraction. In its
review on July 1, 1953, the Montreal
Star wrote: "The first big surprise was
the amazing flexibility and the deceiving
latitude of the comparatively small stage
and Mr. Guthrie's three-dimensional use
of it. Characters erupt out of nowhere
and converged on its several platforms
from all directions and just as quickly
melted away into the obscurity from
which they had appeared."
The newspaper's review continued
to focus on the stage: "One thing certain
is that they were never visually bored by
Miss Moiseiwitsch's permanent set. Its
inner stage and balcony are formal and
solid with graceful, slender columns, but
its complementary doors and stairways
on either side are not symmetrically
balanced. This variety of line is carried
out elsewhere in various ways. The garden seat set just off the main platform,
which can be built up to form an elevated

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THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

WINTER 2018

throne, is not balanced on the other side
and the main platform with its surrounding steps has its corners cut off. The
many levels in such a small space gave
Mr. Guthrie some wonderful opportunities for literally building up pyramids
of figures and it was interesting to note
how he varied his approach in the two
plays."

New Performance Dynamic

For the actors, the Stratford Festival
stage presented an entirely new dynamic
for performances in modern Western
theatre. In an interview with The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Guinness stated: "Twenty years of looking out straight is hard
to forget. At first when we started rehearsing, we were all in a panic because
Guthrie said you must show yourselves.
We were like spinning tops, we couldn't
relax, but as we went along we found
we could settle down and relax." To the
Herald Tribune, Guinness described this
new performance space. The stage was
"on absolutely the right lines. It is not any
academic replica for professors to play
about with, not highbrow or strange but

vital." The actor also offered some suggestions for amending the stage design,
stating in the first season the front row of
seats was too close to the stage and the
sweep of the auditorium's circle, at 220
degrees, was too wide and should be
narrowed. For the following season, the
front row was moved back. In later renovations, the arc of the auditorium was
reduced to 175 degrees. This diminution
improved sightlines and movement on
stage, making it easier for actors to address the whole audience.
For the audience, the proximity and
intimacy of the experience introduced
the notion that they, too, are participants
in the spectacle before them. This idea
was later interpreted in other performing arts venues, including the vineyard
configuration for orchestra, notably the
Berlin Philharmonie, which opened in
1963, and continues to be reinterpreted
and refined in many other ways.
Stratford's first artistic director was
well aware many audience members
would see spectators on the other side
of the stage from them and how this design choice would change the nature of

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