Style is always an interesting aspect of creating a play. I mean there are “Style Plays” where the content is the style. There are plays set firmly in a certain genre, where the style of the piece is integral to the story telling. And then there is the more ambiguous aspects of style where it is an aid to storytelling but rather than being integral or inherent is more a matter of illuminating certain aspects of the piece that may not be so readily apparent.
Lovers and Executioners is interesting in terms of style. The play itself does not fall evenly into preconceived notions of genre. Originally written contemporaneously to Mollier it has some structural elements that resonate strongly with that kind of theatre. The use of rhyming couplets for example. The plot however, feels a lot more like a Shakespeare play. Take into account that we are using a modern translation and it becomes a contemporary reworking of a classical story.
So already there is a lot going on there in terms of style just in the language. This is true emotionally as well. The play really runs the gamut from nearly operatic melodrama to hard emotional realism. It is playful and cruel. Soft and hard. In the end quite an emotional roller coaster.
Josh and I, and the rest of the design team, have been working to create a visual world that allows the audience access to all these components. The set is a series of painted flats made to look like dimensional scenery. It is a very classic style with a fairly modern sensibility. Depending upon the staging it allows for very real moments to be played as well as some truly high comic and melodramatic moments as well.
In working through the lighting for this piece it was necessary to find the right balance of realism and theatricality. Even in the most real moments on stage it is necessary to be very clear that we remain in the world of a play. We are never trying to hide that fact.
Further, we wanted the lighting to have a semblance of the classical just as the scenery does. To that end we have components that are very modern and fit right in with the currents of contemporary theatrical lighting design. We also have components harkening back to the classical time the play was written, like footlights. Further, with all the fights and other choreographed movement I was interested in injecting the piece with a dance flavor so much of the lighting has been thought through from a dance perspective and worked into the light plot in that way.
A big concern with this play was that because the visual style is so important to what we are doing with the piece it is as necessary to light the scenery and clothes as it is the actors faces. A balance had to be struck that would at once afford us clear visibility of the actors but also show off the clothes against the set. And the set against the action. This may seem obvious, but finding what this balance is can often be a bit of a trick.
We go in for focus tonight and it will be nice to see all these pieces come together. I am really looking forward to lighting this play over the next several days. It is such a wonderful and delightful visual world to inhabit it should be a lot of fun. Plus being reunited with Josh who I have not worked with since 2001 has been a lot of fun.
Tags: Friends, josh costello, lovers and executioners, mtc, style
