Studio: international art (78.1919)

THE ART OF THE THEATRE

SETTING BY NORMAN MACDERMOTT FOR
RANN KENNEDY’S "THE TERRIBLE MEEK ”

the light thrown thereon. There is one
which, unlit, is ivory-white even to the
sky, but when lit is bathed in warm orange
sunniness with a dry blue summer sky.
Another, unlit, is entirely a neutral grey;
lit, is ‘stonework’ in bright moonlight,
with a rose light glowing inside a great
doorway. Still another, unlit, is a dull
blue, but when lit a translucent green light
falling down a great corridor impinges on
the purplish blue of the foreground. Now
these lightings—the clarity and vibration
of their colour as well as the softness of
their merging into or lapping up to each
other—it would be absolutely impossible to
achieve by the old method of painting the
colour on the canvas. In a little model
fifteen inches by twelve it is possible to
reproduce a sense of space and atmosphere
that never was'secured by the old method
in a theatre of no matter what size. What,
then, is it not possible to do in the theatre
by the new method s' ” a a a
A thorough understanding of the sub-
tleties of lighting is, of course, of the
utmost importance. It enables the artist-
producer to obtain richness of colour
unobtainable by any other method, to
create the finest nuances of gradation of

light and shade, and to suggest atmosphere,
all elements which bring the stage picture
into unity. It also permits of dispensing
largely with that horror the “ make-up,”
by which the face of the actor is partly
transformed into a mask without being
made suitable for the broader methods
possible with the real mask. Face and
body appear more “ in the round,” and are
more unified with the setting. It is the
quality of the light and not the quantity
that counts. The latter Mr. Macdermott
condemns as a mistake made by many of
the newer stage-decorators, for a cold glare
flooding the stage with a harsh intensity
inevitably results in everything looking
blatantly artificial, and by reason of differ-
ence in texture of fabrics forces the
costumes out of key wt h the setting. It is
noteworthy to find that he subscribes to
the view expressed in a previous article in
The Studio that the technique of the
pictorial artist is unsuitable to the require-
ments of the stage. The stage-director
must work direct in his mater al, viz. the
plastic material of his craft. Otherw se he
w 11 on'y add the limitations of another
craft to the already existing limitations of
the theatre. a a E. O. H.

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