(Leaves in the props department, image by Grant Sparkes-Carroll;
production images both by Brett Boardman; Didwiszus talking to
director Iain Sinclair and the model box for Blood
Wedding, both by Grant Sparkes-Carroll)
When set designer Rufus Didwiszus begins work on a new production,
the first thing he does is crack out a new bottle of liquid
paper.
"When I look at the script, I usually start by putting white over
all of the stage directions," he says. "I feel a good play or a
good text doesn't usually age but the stage directions are the
first thing that can age. They can be so attached to an aesthetic
or a particular time or to a technology and I don't want to
obstruct my view of it. I want to find my own approach and to see
if it is timeless."
The latest play to get this signature Didwiszus treatment is the
new STC production of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, which is
directed by Iain Sinclair and opened in Wharf 1 last week.
The play, written in 1932, fuses drama and fantasy to tell the
story of a young girl who runs away with her married lover on the
eve of her wedding, going against nature and tempting great
tragedy.
Berlin-based Didwiszus has gained a reputation for creating
powerfully spare designs for some of Europe's best theatre
companies including the Schaubühne in Berlin. He uses clean lines
and open space to focus attention, punctuated with textured
surfaces and minimal props, all used to dramatic effect.
He has predominantly worked on productions of plays that might be
considered modern classics, such as work by Sarah Kane and Marius
Von Mayenburg, but he has also put his stamp on traditional
classics including a production of King Learfor the Royal
Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 2003.
He has found working on a play by García Lorca to be similar to
working on a Shakespeare in one significant way
"García Lorca wrote this play for his small travelling company,
called La Barraca, so I know there wasn't much set involved in
these productions originally," Didwiszus says. "Like Shakespeare's
plays, when you read it you can see that it was not written for a
lot of set, so what happens is that it immediately feels overworked
if you create too much. Nevertheless it needs a frame, a place for
the actors, so it is important to find the right balance."
One of the key decisions Didwiszus needed to make with Sinclair was
whether to keep the play in its original Spanish setting or to
transpose it to a new location such as the Middle East or rural
Australia.
This production, which stars a strong cast of actors including Leah
Purcell, Lynette Curran, Yalin Ozucelik and the female members of
STC's The Residents, uses a new translation written by Sinclair
and, although he has made the work easier for an Australian
audience to relate to, there was no denying the strong Spanish core
to the script.
"When I did the first readings of the play I asked myself - how
Spanish is it when I take out the stage directions? Can it be set
anywhere?" Didwiszus says. "When I read just the text I saw it is
set in a place that is hot, dry and poor, where there are very
religious beliefs and traditions around the way the girl is being
married. This I can see in Southern Italy and Spain, in Portugal,
and I'm sure you can see it in Australia as well. But still I found
in this play that there is a strong 'Spanishness' in it, especially
in the fantasies in the second half."
Authenticity was important to Didwiszus in creating the look of
this show, which meant he had some interesting requests for the set
and props departments. The set has a real stone floor, the backdrop
in one scene is an enormous print of a photograph by world renowned
artist Joel-Peter Witkin and at one point in the play actors come
on stage wielding antique chainsaws that have been restored but
disabled for safety.
Another element of the set that was essential to Didwiszus' design
was thousands of dried leaves that cover the stage in a scene set
in a forest.
The props department considered and budgeted for several different
options including buying silk leaves and hand-making leaves out of
brown paper. However, a change in the seasons in Sydney provided
them with an alternative option.
"Very early on in the production process we took a punt because at
the time of year Hickson Road (in Walsh Bay, where STC is based)
was covered in dry leaves, so we just went out and collected them
on the off chance that we could use them," says Head of the Props
Department Alex Stuart. "It was really quick to do and they were
nice and dry because it was before the rain had come so we got out
there and got bags of them."
The leaves were a perfect fit with Didwiszus' desire for
authenticity, although using real leaves presented several
practical hurdles.
"We had to check whether the actors would be allergic to them, if
we could fire-proof them, whether we could put them on stage
without any problems and whether they would last or if they would
disintegrate so quickly that we would have to go through too many
of them in the season," says Stuart. "Rufus and Iain weren't really
interested in a stylised look for the leaves, and as soon as they
saw the real leaves, they knew that's what they wanted. I could
understand why they liked that look.
In addition to the more unusual elements of the set design,
Didwiszus was eager to ensure that his interpretation of García
Lorca's Spain retained the spirit of the country without lapsing
into pastiche.
"The challenge was not to fall into any sort of cliché, or to make
it look like you went past the Spanish tourist department, which is
a trap for me almost every day when I am looking at props,"
Didwiszus says. "It is dangerous and you must not fall into that.
It's an instinct thing and I guess it will always be difficult with
certain objects."
Blood Wedding, Wharf 1
Theatre, 1 August - 11 September, 2011.
Feature: Rufus Didwiszus
Date posted: 22 Aug 2011Author: STC