Greek drama Essay

In this essay, a companion piece to The drill of set and costume devise in modern output auguryals of ancient classical drama, I volition discuss the importance of theater of operations seat in contemporary productions of classical drama. Of neces baby-sity, I constitute limited my choice of productions to a set of (around) a dozen manakins every(pre no.nal) of these apprise be tack in concert catalogued in the database. It is hoped that the reader will be able to apply the base ideas expounded here to a fuller electron orbit of productions than those alluded to in the text. Live accomplishment takes rump in a triple-dimensional shoes.The study of any conclusion of battlefield history will reveal that there has always been a constructed evolution of ho determinationhold home, both evening gown and informal. In all cases, the audition member, the smasher, be stimulates part of the performance, and is therefore an integral part of the situation itself fo r contemporary performances, the playing area outer space and the spectators family to that space can range from a strictly formalized proscenium-arch salute to a make-shift performance space in a busy street or in an decrepit wareho go for.Whatever the logistics of the playing space, there is always some kind of ocular condition in operation in the case of the temporary and off-the-cuff street performance, the optical setting might just be a circle or semi-circle of passers-by with carrier bags and the back demesne of a shopping-centre it might be a green lawn and shady trees set before a fastness wall for a more formal string out-air production the visual setting might be the contraband walls of an in gate neutral strikings space, so popular at the moment with postmodern comprise productions or it might be the glitzy painted scenery of a air jacket End deliver.The invention of space is a very important hotshot in the theory of house practice, and is used to id entify very un resembling aspects of performance. The nary(preno(prenominal)inal)ion of space can be humble down into several(prenominal) categories there can be a dramatic space an plume space of the imagination, i. e. , a fictionalization there is stage space, which is literally the sensual space of the stage on which the actors move (this can include ext destroying the playacting space into the auditory sense arena). An some an other(a)(prenominal) concept of space can be termed gestural space, which is created by the actors and their movements.Finally there is athletic field space, the area sedulous by the auditory modality and the actors during the course of a performance and which is characterized by the delegacy performance relationship fostered betwixt the two. The theatre space is product of the interplay between stage space, gestural space and dramatic space and, according to Anne Uberseld, it is constructed, on the foot of an architecture, a (pictorial) vie w of the piece, or a space sculpted basically by the actors bodies. The focalise of this essay is with this fourth definition of space.What I am not concerned with here is the idea of diegetic or narrative space, sure not in the strictest sense of the term narrative (for example, a couriers speech in tragedy which often narrates an event which has taken place off stage). The narrative cannot take on too oftentimes importance in the body of the play without running the risk of destroying its theatrical performance quality therefore narrative is often confined to static monologues. However, in recent years there has been an escalating trend in classic tragical performance for re-thinking the concept of narrative in visual and spacial terms.This ordinarily employs the dramatic re-create of an event which properly should only form a narrative recitation, an idea most to the full developed in Katie Mitchells version of the Oresteia in which the ache choral narrative recounti ng the stopping point of Iphigeneia was vie out in abstract form in the theatre space (and employing that space to its best advantage too (DB id nos. 1111 and 1112)). The figure of the strangle Iphigeneia a character who is, after all, absent from Aeschylus cast-list was integrated into the principal(prenominal) serve of the drama byout, silently commenting on or endorsing the narrative fragment.THEATRE aloofness On entry a theatre of any kind, a spectator walk of lifes into a specific space, sensation that is ended to produce a reliable re save or series of responses. The reception of that space becomes part of the aggregate theatrical cognize. There are several dimensions that affect the auditory modality entering into a space for the first time and several questions need to be asked. How, for example, is the space entered by the consultation? Do they enter through brocaded(a) wide-open doors or do they climb narrow stairs? Moreover, where has the earreach co me from before entering this specific space?In other words, is there a space before this space? Once the consultation has entered into the theatre space it becomes important to note how is the space divided. Where do the sense of hearing sit (or stand) in relation to the performance area, if such a formal space exists? Bearing these points in mind, let us now try out the relationship of theatrical space, design concept and audition reception in modern productions of Greek tragedies, for it is evident that several contemporary managers have utilize theatrical space to full advantage in order to tactical maneuver listening reactions in particular ways.The French company Le mansion du Soleil, under the leadership of conductor Arianne Mnouchkine, famously created in the early nineties a remarkable production of the Oresteia which was preceded by Euripides Iphigeneia at Aulis and performed under the banner-title Les Atrides (DB ref. no. 152). Mnouchkines vision was to create a theatrical consume where other(prenominal) and present intermingled seamlessly she realized that the audience had to be transported to another conception of reality.. Her concept of mis-en-scene was of a kind of historical construction- turn up, and this was realized as soon as the spectator cadenceped into the theatre itself, at least in its original staging at Vincennes. In a large reception hall hostile the auditorium, a wide map of the ancient Mediterranean world, naughtylighting the voyages of Agamemnon, was hang up against a deep blue wall. Around the room there were books and photo displays of ancient Greek life in addition, Greek food was prepared, interchange and eaten on site. In this way the audience was prepared, nurtured, and coerced into accepting the other world waiting for them beyond the foyer.On their way into the performance area, the audience had to walk through an antechamber and on a path above what appeared to be (on first sight) an unfinished arch aeological dig which was filled with recently unearthed large terracotta chirrupan figures, resembling the famous Chinese terracotta army. The audience walked past this archaeological site and entered the performance space from behind steeply raked position area-blocks below the structure, the actors sat in little booths, fully visible to the audience, and applied their make-up and tied on their elaborate costumes.As they walked by, audience members were stopped by the performers who frequently in use(p) with them in some light conversation in a intended effort to break the us and them barriers of conventional Western theatre practice. Having get across the excavated transition space and the actors dressing area, the audience took their sit in the raised seating-blocks and waited for the performance to begin. They were aware of a low hum of gongs and other exotic instruments, and they could smell the perfume of burning incense.When the lights dimmed, the sound of a kettle dr um rose to a thunderous roar and dead the leapingrs of the chorus rushed on from the back of the stage with exuberant shouts in a whirling blaze of red, lightlessness, and yellow costumes, as if the terracotta army had come to life and had demonstrate its way up and onto the stage. The exit (and I experient it myself) was breathtaking. Mnouchkine had succeeded in bridging the gap between the two worlds of past-theatrical and present-mundane and had persuaded her audience to accept the overtly theatrical conventions of her production.She likewise succeeded in transforming the theatrical space into a rite space. Katie Mitchells productions of two Greek tragedies, matchless for the RSC (Phoenician Women, 1995 DB ref. no. 211) and one for the Royal National domain (The Oresteia, 1999 DB ref. nos. 1111, 1112) have been noteworthy for their nude and minimalist use of theatre space. The audience entering Stratfords The opposite word Place for the first performance of Phoenic ian Women were ushered into a bare black box and seated on hard backless benches.They were not provided with programmes, so that a familiar aspect of twentieth-century theatre-going was denied to them instead they were handed wide-eyed sprigs of thyme, a kind of ritualistic gesture which was presumably intended to prepare the audience for the spiritual dramatic come across that awaited them. They were seated on terce sides of the performance area which was backed on one side by a rudimentary kind of skene decorated with little lamps and terracotta figurines of ancient Greek and Near Eastern deities. This decorated back wall helped to transform the space into a place of holy ritual.Unfortunately, many another(prenominal) audience members found the experience less than mystical, and critics voiced a common complaint that the design decisions around the use of the theatrical space were badly made. Nick Curtis of the Evening specimen noted that, There is little concession to comfo rt the stringently minimalist design of Rae Smith and Vicki Mortimer extends to backless benches for the audience. For the Stratford Herald critic, Paul Lapworth, the emotional twinge experienced by the characters in the tragedy was matched by the tangible twinge of the audience,The pain . . . was . . . matched by the uncomfortableness of the seating arrangements, the audience perched on blocks the like tiers from a Coliseum. It was the least satisfactory adaptation in an otherwise interest renewal of an ancient dramatic experience. Others beside Lapworth sampleed to justify Mitchells decisions to bench the audience on uncomfortable benches by alluding to ancient theatrical tradition. Charles Spencer of The free-and-easy Telegraph wrote a particularly virulent attack on the design decisions, but attempted to make sense of themIt would be dishonest to play that this is an enjoyable or even a physically comfortable evening. Euripides unadulterated tragedy lasts more than two hours (sans interval) and the RSC has mysteriously concluded to make the put in the theatre even more uncomfortable by crook them into backless benches. I was all set to work up an angry head of steam about this when a thought occurred. It cant have been comfortable on the stone seats of Greek amphitheatres sic and in those days audiences sat through four different plays.Nevertheless, the use of theatre space in Mitchells Phoenician Women seriously marred the productions other qualities. It was the discomfort of the performance that was remembered by most audience members, not the play itself. The public dissatisfaction with the use of space was clearly registered by the theater director who, despite any pretensions to artistic vision, was compelled to adjust her ideas when the production locomote to The Pit at the Barbican in capital of the United Kingdom in June 1996. As The Times critic Jeremy Kingston noted,Katie Mitchells . . . production is more audience-friendly in the basin-like pit than on the level floor in The Other Place. skill from past mistakes, perhaps, Mitchells RNT production of The Oresteia was self-consciously more conventionally theatrical in its use of the theatre space. The black box of the Cottesloe theater was kept in its regular traverse stage orientation, with seating blocks erected on raised platforms on both sides of the acting space and mount by black (comfortable) chairs.The upstairs gallery surrounding and overlooking the stage consisted of padded benches and juicy chairs. So theatre space is a very important element of the design process. It can successfully create a mood (as witnessed by Le Theatre du Soleil), but it mustiness remain functional and comfortable. Directors and designers who do not acknowledge this are imprudent. An audience is prepared to undergo a transformation as it walks from foyer to auditorium, but there is little mistrust that an audience will not put up with physical discomfort for too long.T o justify pain by saying it was the common experience of the ancient Greek theatre-goer is perverse it is probable that Greek audience members came fully prepared for a whole festive day at the theatre with cushions and blankets besides which, audience etiquette, like that inherited by us from our square-toed ancestors, probably did not force the Greek audience to sit in reverential silence or stillness throughout the entire length of four plays.Each director and designer responds to space differently famously, pricking Brook calls for an Empty Space, Josef Svoboda calls for a gigantic space, and Jerzy Grotowski calls for an intimate space. The use of space has a profound effect on the audience in orthodox theatre, the lit proscenium stage contrasts with the darkened space of the auditorium and the effect is one of alienation the audience is aware of a barrier between themselves and the performers, a concept that was entirely absent from the ancient Greek theatre experience.Intere stingly, directors often toy with the notions of audience visibility and the breeching of the invisible us and them barriers. whoreson Halls famous 1981 National Theatre production of the Oresteia (DB ref. no. 207) climaxed with the Furies (transformed into the Eumenides) progressing up the steps of the Olivier auditorium as the lights rose to incorporate both clothed performers and the audience into the ritual as the audience found themselves cast in the role of Athenian citizens.This was also the case in Katie Mitchells Oresteia (1999). In the second of the two parts, The Daughters of trace, the theatre space was transformed into the Athenian Areopagus and, accordingly, genus Athene addressed the seated and visible audience (lit by the house lights) as Citizens of Athens and instructed them, This is the first case of homicide To be essay in the chat up I have established. The court is yours. From today every homicide Shall be tried before this jury Of twelve Athenians.And thi s is where you shall sit, on the hill of Ares. nary(prenominal) all uses of theatre space or conscientious attempts to break down audience boundaries are as successful. The (2000) production of Aristophanes Peace by Chloe Productions at Londons Riverside Theatre (DB Ref. no. 877), in the scene in which the chorus drags away the stone that keeps Peace hidden inwardly her cave, boost audience participation by handing them lengths of rope and asking them to haul along with the masked cast.As the cast moved among the audience and coaxed them into action, there arose (from own(prenominal) experience) a distinct feeling of unease among the passive spectators. In this sense, the attempt to open up the use of theatre space unfortunately failed. In conventional modern theatre performances, the lit proscenium stage or other types of placement of space often allow for a loose visual perspective, but any communication within that space is commonly one-directional from stage to auditoriu m.The audience members sit next to one another in the darkened auditorium, but there is no communication between them, nor do they necessarily see one another. Interestingly, Katie Mitchells use of live telly images in her Oresteia frequently highlighted blocks of the audience or even individual spectators and project their images onto a giant screen, reminding other audience members that they were part of a wider grouping of spectators sharing a common theatrical experience. Unlike the audience of ancient Athens in the Theatre of Dionysus, modern audiences rarely sit within the beautiful environment.The notion of environmental theatre is taken to its furthest accomplishment by Grotowski, who often has his performers address the spectators directly as they walk and sit among them in a space that is totally devoid of theatrical formality. This whitethorn not be an let way to best stage Greek tragedies (although it could work well for comedies), where a formal distance of time a nd space between the actors and audience is often necessary. Of course, there are numerous other spaces for performance the proscenium wall stage, the thrust stage, the arena stage and the surround stage.The apron stage format is one in which the audience sits on three sides of the acting area or part of the acting area. This type of organization was use by the Glasgow-based theatre babels five-hour triple bill, Greeks (DB ref. nos. 2510, 2524 and 2521), and by Katie Mitchells Phoenician Women. The thrust stage is an acting space located in the middle of the audience who are placed on two opposite sides of the theatre space, as used by Katie Mitchell in her National Theatre Oresteia. An arena stage is one in which the audience entirely surrounds the acting space.This can be an effective way of mounting tragedy, but it is not often utilized. An arena stage was adopted by the National Theatres production of The Darker Face of The Earth (DB ref. no. 1089), at the Cottesloe in 1999 wh ere the audience was seated on four sides of the acting space, which consisted of a primeval pit surrounded by movable wooden boardwalks. In a surround stage, on the other hand, the audience sits in the middle and the dramatic action occurs around them. To a certain extent, this (brave) staging was attempted by Nick Ormerod in his design for a production of Antigone in 1999 (DB ref. no. 1091).Here the broad set extended into the auditorium of the Old Vic while surplus members of the audience were seated at the rear of the stage. Additionally, performances can take place in a found space, such as a church, a warehouse, or any other space which does not have any other major specifically designed theatrical pieces (sets, etc) imposed upon it, or in a reborn theatre space. These are specially found theatre spaces which are transformed by adding designed seating and/or architectural or scenic pieces that help locate the action of the performance. Mnouchkines Les Atrides is an excelle nt example of the use of such a space.The Cardiff-based Welsh quarrel theatre company Dalier Sylw produced its 1992 production of Bakkhai (directed by Ceri Sherlock DB. Ref. no. 2604) in a sparse, largely unadorned, warehouse with no specific audience seating areas the audience was troopd around the space which was separated into different (often elaborately designed) locations (the castling at Thebes was a parched stone harem building, Mount Parnassus was a vast mound of wet earth and grass) and was only settled into mend seating towards the end of the performance in order to witness the bacchanalian frenzy.Increasingly, highly specialized spaces for hosting athletic events are being temporarily converted for theatre performances. A Cambridge student production of trojan horse Women in 1998 (DB ref. No. 952), for example, set the action in an empty swimming pool, which was awash with line of descent by the end of the production. Purcaretes Les Danaides (DB ref. no. 153) was st aged in vast exhibition halls in Vienna, Avignon, Amsterdam and Birmingham.Because theatre space dictates so frequently of the emotional and sensory impact on the spectator, directors seek the most appropriate space possible for each production. When considering a space a director must address a number of important issues, deciding, for example, if the audience and performers should be formally separated from each other and whether the spectators should be observers of or participants in the performance. The director must decide upon the number of entrance and exit locations to be used and whether the entrances will be the same for actors and audience.In addition, a director will engage with the emotional and psychological feel of the space and decide if it should feel open or confined, friendly or hostile. Once the guidelines for these spacial elements have been developed, the director is ready to explore the other visual sign systems proxemics, picturization and impede. PROXEMIC S Proxemics is a recent discipline of American origin wherein the organization of military personnel space is systematically analysed. As a study of space as it relates to physical distances, notions of proxemics are of fundamental importance to the director.In the theatre, the first step towards designing the productions mis-en-scene is to determine the nature of the space that the performers will use. The cause plan of the space determines the possible movement of the actors and the special relationships of the characters, since the physical distance between people can relate to social, cultural, and environmental factors. Changes in those spaces can therefore stress character and plot development. A director uses proxemics in his/her manipulation of space and spacial relationships among the setting, objects, and actors.A stage space that is enclosed and cluttered with objects and performers creates a very different mood and automated teller machine from one that is open and con tains only one simple piece of setting and few performers. unitedly with the designer, the director will draw up a production back farming knowledge plan to indicate the proxemic potential of the actors and the theatre space. The ground plan has to be a pictorial representation of the acting space, indicating entrances and exits it must outline the set, indicate the location of doors, the floor area, any ramps, platforms, pits or trapdoors.The ground plan should also indicate the whereabouts of freestanding props and furniture. Below, a ground plan for the second part of Katie Mitchells Oresteia at the National Theatre, indicates her proxemic use of theatre space The theatrical space consisted of a thrust stage measuring 9. 9m x 12m, with seven main entrance/exits for the actors one main entrance through the huge steel door at the farther end of the acting space and six entrances dispersed around the audience seating-blocks.At the opposite end of the performance area from the gre at door was a high and narrow platform reached by a stepladder. A trapdoor in the stage natural coveringed with a metal drain cover served as the grave of Agamemnon. In the Eumenides sectionalisation of the play, a section of the stage covering was removed to reveal an oblong pool of water. cigaret this was a raised rostrum with steps on which stood the statue of Apollo. The acting space, seating blocks and surrounding curtains were coloured black.There were several set pieces upstage left-hand(a) of door was a piano and piano stool. There was a long table (actually composed of two tables) which was unadorned in The root give but surrounded with dining chairs in the opening half(prenominal) of The Daughters of Darkness. In Act II the same two tables were placed together to form a square. Ten chairs (which had first been set upstage, below the high platform, into neat rows and which had been used to seat the sleeping Furies) were placed around the edges. fit to Edward Hall (Th e Father of Proxemics) there are three types of space placed-feature space, semifixed-feature space and informal space. In the case of fixed-feature space, the parameters of the acting space are be by eonian features such as walls, columns, and doorways. A good example of fixed-feature space is, of course, the ancient Greek theatre itself, which had an open thrust acting area (the orkhestra), two fixed levels above (the stage and the roof of the skene) and fixed entrances (into the skene by one or more doors and into the orkhestra via the two paradoi).Furniture and scenic pieces appear to have been kept to a minimum in the Greek theatre, and the playwright often created a change of dramatic location (i. e. scene) through dialogue alone. The acting space used in Les Atrides was also a fixed-feature space, consisting of a bare and sparse open acting area which had no curtains, no flies, and no wing-space, just a huge expanse of a dry, parched-looking sandy floor surrounded by a cru mbling blood-splattered wall which was broken up by recesses and a double-doored gate upstage.It looked very much like a bullring. In fact, the acting space was an term within an enclosure the crumbling wall that enclosed the stage was itself enclosed by a huge wooden wall painted blue like sky or sea, in the middle of which was another big gate that sporadically unfastened to reveal an expanse of blackness beyond. John Napiers set design for John Bartons RSC production of The Greeks at the Aldwych Theatre in 1980 (DB. Ref. no. 138) can also be classified advertisement as a fixed-feature space. enwrap within a fixed proscenium arch, his set was a permanent structure, which comprised of, A large black platform with a scooped-out area in the middle, worn by sun and usage. The Times Education Supplement critic, Bernard Crick, expound the permanent structure as, A clean, uncluttered, open and steeply raked stage, basically a rectangle with a circle in it that can suggest, at differe nt times, an arena, a confluence place, a secret grove. . . . There was a bare stage, except for a few bushes by a golden mask of bloody Artemis mounted on a totem pole.Dionysis Fotopoulos also created a fixed-feature space for the design of Tantalus (DB. Ref. no. 2578). Also enclosed behind a formal proscenium arch, a basic circle (or pit) of sand surrounded by curved aluminiferous walls served to function as a modern-day beach on a Greek island, the palace of Mycenae, the Greek camp, the city of Troy, the corn fields of Phthia and many other locations. For The Clytemnestra Project (a working of Iphigeneia at Aulis, Agamemnon, and Electra. DB ref. no.1029) at the Guthrie Theatre in 1992, set designer Douglas Stein created a proscenium arch fixed set that consisted of a sixteen-foot curved rake that resembled a hill or cupped saucer which was backed by two simple semi-circles of white starched curtains that extended the concentric circles of the stage up to the fly tower. Together they created a strong notion of a horizon. The inner circle at the center of the stage was given a polished black cultivation so that it shone and contrasted to the white curtains.The overall effect was of restrained, almost Japanese, elegance. As Dramaturg Jim Lewis noted in his production notebook, There will be no identify this environment for a realistic setting. It is a sacred space in which actors will perform the audience is included in this space, invited to observe the action of the plays along with the chorus. A semifixed-feature space identifies a performance area in which there are design elements (furniture, props, scenery pieces) that have size and/or bulk but which can be moved during the performance.This was a marked feature of Katie Mitchells Oresteia, in which a simple trestle table became the focus of major dramatic action in The Home Guard it became a catwalk for Agamemnon and a place of sanctuary for Cassandra, while in The Daughters of Darkness, as the actio n moved into the palace at Argos, the table was placed downstage (in the same position that it had occupied in The Home Guard) so that it dominated the action of the following scenes. It was surrounded with dining chairs and covered with a dazzling white tablecloth and napkins and set with elegant crockery, glass and silverware.The table played a vital part in the staging of the latter half of the Choephoroi section of the play since it was here that the royal family sat to receive their foreign guests (Orestes and Pylades) and it was here that the ghosts of the dead Agamemnon and Iphigeneia (and the murdered old man of the chorus of The Home Guard) joined their living relatives for supper. When the bloodlust began, the order of the dining table was literally overturned and glasses, crockery and furniture were strewn across the acting area.The corpse of Clytemnestra was fit(p) on the table and it was from this position that her ghost was reanimated at the end of Act I. In direct co ntrast to the fixed-feature and semifixed-feature spaces, an informal space is an open space with no structural definition at all. Open-air and promenade productions fall under this heading. An example of this kind of staging would be the Australian director Greg McCarts production of Oidipus the King set within a basalt quarry and played at sunset (DB ref. no. 156).PICTURIZATION AND BLOCKING The theatrical process comes to life for the audience when they observe stage pictures, all in movement or in static formation in other words, the audience witnesses either a series of frozen moments or a flowing sequence of movements which results in a constantly changing and develop significance to characterization and/or plot. Frozen moments can be classified under the heading picturization (although the terms tableau or tableau vivant may be just as applicable).This is a major feature of eastern theatre, particularly Japanese Kabuki productions, where the formalized frozen pose is given the spend a penny mie. Not surprisingly, picturization has been a major visual facet of Orientalist productions of Greek tragedy, in particular Mnouchkines Kathakali-inspired Les Atrides and Ninagawas Kabuki-style production of Medea (DB ref. no. 177) and Suzukis Noh-style Trojan Women (DB ref. no. 1086), his Kabuki Dionysus, and his hybrid East-West Clytemnestra (DB ref. no. 1028).The nature of Greek drama, given the underlying elements of the chorus, is especially given to the creation of moments of picturization. The movement of actors around the stage is know as obturate. It is important that the director, sometimes in collaboration with the designer(s) and choreographer(s), using the ground plan as a tool and visual aid, blocks the play in the early stages of rehearsal. Good blocking should allow the actors to be visible to the audience and enable characters to move around and on and off the stage.Blocking should also contribute to the communication of emotion and to plot de velopment by analyze character relationships and focusing the action to give emphasis to an event or series of events. For Greek drama, the notion of blocking is intimately connected to the issue of choreography in fact, the two are almost inseparable. This merging can take the form of strict dance routines such as the potently evocative Kathakali steps employed by the stunning chorus of Les Atrides, the Oxford wendy house corps de ballet of young girls in Helen Eastmans production of Iphigenia at Aulis (DB ref.no. 966), and the Aboriginal chorus in Greg McCarts Oidipous the King. Alternatively, the merging of blocking and choreography can result in carefully controlled movement utilized for comic effect, such as the Keaton and Chaplinesque slapstick routines of Dictynna Hoods 1997 Birds (DB ref. no. 854), or the controlled wheel-chair manoeuvrings of Katie Mitchells chorus of war veterans in The Home Guard. Donald McKayle, the choreographer for Tantalus, recalls that movement, ge sture, blocking and dance were indistinguishable and that,There are no set dance pieces in Tantalus. The dance is part of the dramatic fabric. It gives colour and weight and soma to the words. There are so many words. aroundtimes the dance extends to one or two minutes but often it lasts just a moment or two. Sometimes I give movement a vocabulary to the actors to utlize within a scene. Its a fascinating experience of underscoring dialogue with gesture as well as sound. As we have seen, space is central to the performances meaning(s).Directors acknowledge that the size, shape and layout of a theatre space directs, even dictates, a performances mise-en-scene. Some directors, like Greg McCart and Ceri Sherlock, even choose to look outside the traditional theatre space for an appropriate place to bring a concept, a script, performers and audience together. For others, like Katie Mitchell and Nick Ormerod, a more conventional theatre space is chosen, but used in imaginative new ways. In either case, however, space is seen as a pivotal element in the directorial relationship between the performance and its spectators.