Widening the Scope - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 330

Most satisfactory when it happens, but of course it doesn't always happen. I can get stuck with
an image that is so beautiful, but I cannot make it work. My inner voice tells me: it's a great
image, but what is it saying? Nothing, the other voice says. Well why have it? Because it's nice,
and I'm showing of . So the conversation goes on, with Gollum and Sméagol overtones, and
if I can't i nd a justii cation for it in the scheme of the piece, then it has to go. My scrapbooks
and scripts are full of images that could have been startling, but, they just weren't right. But for
Habeas Corpus everything clicked with the maypole. For Next it was the single puppet, Screen
Play the revolving stage, Rigoletto the bird masks, Achilles the stone arena, and for Gilbert and
Sullivan the bed. Each a discipline forcing creativity. Within each piece, I try to work with strong
shapes that also dif erentiate the locations. Hamilton Mattress , in particular, had verticals,
horizontals, circles or triangles prescribing each location.
Hamilton Mattress ' location-defi ning triangles.
I love i nding resonances with props, and in Habeas Corpus brightly coloured umbrellas
became weapons, sexual metaphors and places of concealment. The show was a riot of colour.
The main four doors, hidden in the set, were each painted of stage a bright solid colour. This
emphasised a sudden entrance with a l ash of savage primary red, but also helped the cast
to remember which door they were racing through. I had wanted a distinct pattern made by
the interweaving maypole ribbons, by limiting the colours, but twelve dancers grabbing their
particular ribbon on a sudden cue needed the security of individual colours.
The Ritz
Likewise, The Ritz , a farce, needs a couple of dozen rooms on stage, each with
a bed in, but I designed a set with one large open white space with just two
beds doubling for every location, with my ubiquitous hidden doors. This led to
split-second timing with beds vacated by one couple and occupied instantly by
another, seemingly as another space. This extra element of theatricality increased
the physical mayhem far more ef ectively than if we'd had a literal set. In practical
terms it meant clear sightlines as well. A very happy production.