If necessity is the mother of invention … she is also the handmaiden of artistic highpoints and the close cousin of chaos. And all this from setting a few scene changes!
The problem necessitating a solution? It’s nothing more than managing the scene changes in Separate Tables, Rattigan’s classic double suite of one act plays set in a hotel in Bournemouth. The action takes place by turns in the dining room and lounge which presents few staging problems … if you are playing on a full proscenium stage. Two sets, side by side … no problem. In the studio the challenges begin.
“The same space will be used for both, and we’ll shift the furniture.” Six dining tables, all laid, more chairs, flowers, sofa, arm chair, writing desk, occasional tables etc etc … “It all has to come off and go on in one minute or so”. The cast are sanguine … this is a problem for the back stage crew … however …
“We’re not having scene-shifters, you’re going to do the job yourselves,” the cast is told. So we spend most of a Sunday devising the three changes needed. They are artistic, flowing, do the job, look good and one of them adds significantly the drama that Rattigan wrote. Videos are taken to remind us what to do, but probably they won’t be needed … by the close of play on the Sunday we are shifting furniture like a well oiled machine.
One week later and that machine needs some urgent servicing … thank goodness for those video clips to resolve the different memories of who is supposed to be doing what!
But … it will all be alright on the night. How do we know? Well, by then we’ll have been in the hands of our SM, and she will make sure it is so. And anyway, we are competent really.
The scene changes are going to be wonderful. The plays even better. You really mustn’t miss either!
John Whittell
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