Little Eyolf

Description

The following question inspired my graduation project: how can I create the experience of an outside space within a theatre? I aimed at the illusion of an open place, one that extends beyond any visible walls. My research’s main practical outcome is the set and video design for a theatre production of Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf (1894), (premiere on 3 May 2012 at Het Nationale Toneel in The Hague). My research assesses how in live performance, digital video technology influences the perception of space. My starting point was to create a room that represents a state of mind; actors were to be vague figures in an apparently endless landscape of fog and air. With the help of projections, scrims, and artificial fog, I established the impression of a scene set outside, yet paradoxically also on location within a human mind rather than inside a theatre. My aim was to create a three dimensional space for images, combining layers of projection within an amorphous substance like fog. Rather than a conventional flat screen, I sought the illusion of depth and perspective on a nebulous body. The audience experience the tension between the scale of the human frame and the scale of the space around them. The collaboration intrinsic to theatre is essential to my working practice. Therefore my research entails analysing the results of the cooperation between different professions such as stage design, sound design, light design, directing, and acting. As this particular theatre production aimed at bringing natural and universal powers on stage, I was especially interested to see how all crafts combine together to create one entity. Like cinema, live performance takes place in an empty black space; my fascination with this fact forms the subject matter of my designs. Looking back on the other theatre designs I made during the Master Course at Piet Zwart Institute, I will show how my research into cinematic language influences my approach as a designer.