Thursday, September 20, 2007
Costumes that distract from the drama
Guardian Unlimited: "In Big White Fog you could practically feel the life going on outside the Chicago family's front door, so authentically had Attenborough and designer Jonathan Fensom fashioned the domestic interior. But with Awake and Sing!, Attenborough seems to have fallen into the trap of so many productions these days: glamming up where scruffy should be the order of the day."
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9 comments:
i would be interested to hear if this was in "artistic choice" or not. it sounds to me like it would be hard to argue for.
its always been interesting to me that one element could add or detract so much from a piece of entertainment. its interesting because traditionally i consider the elements to be some what unnoticed, hopefully because they are successful in portraying a message of unity and conveying the story as opposed to standing out as an entity all in their own...
This would be the sort of thing that would distract me from the overall story. When one element stands out from the rest like that, it makes it very hard to concentrate on the acting and the plot.
This makes you wonder if the designers read the script. they must have but still... its true that when one element of a production is not cohesive with the rest it really throws people off. and probably the acting would have been even better had they been dressed correctly, because actors always say that being dressed for the part really helps to get in character.
This reminds me of a point that I think Jules Fisher made at the BLMC when I was there. He said that "The lighting can tell its own story." This however points out how carefull you have to be with that though. If one element of the play stands out so much that it detracts from the ability of audience to pay attention to the plot you really have to re-think something.
I would want to hear more from the director than anyone else about this choice. It seems odd that the designers' vision would clash so completely with with director's and yet still get on stage, especially when this isn't the only show that's had this wardrobe problem. This article is just like the part in "The Dramatic Imagination" when Jones describes a production where the audience recognized pieces from a particular department store. You don't want an audience noticing the clothes seperately from the actors/characters. Maybe its an example of designers working with a budget and freedom enough to want to use nicer or newer clothes when they should have realy stuck with the mood and context of the play.
I agree that it is interesting that a design so off base from the plot and the director made it on stage. I mean, dressing poor people in glizty suits doesn't seem like something that is easy to overlook. It sounded to me like it was an "artistic choice" that failed to get its point across.
On another note, I was always taught the the point of the set (or the costumes, lighting, technical aspects in general) was to supplement the actors. You shouldn't aim (as say, the set designer) for people to come out of the show and say "The acting was all right but that set was phenomenal". You don't want to distract the audience with an off base "artistic choice" even if it is sucessful.
this, to me, just seems like lazy designing. It is not a challenge to make something look pretty or desirable. Think about television show designs. All I really hear people say about television design is "Oh gee. Their house is so neat. I wish I lived there." If you're going to do a play set in a certain period with certain problems, like say a depression perhaps, it is vital that you do the research and aren't working just to prove that you can make something "look nice"
it's always worrisome to have the design overtake the action of the play. It is important that the design there to supplement the story or add another nuance to it rather than to have the costumes be the most important thing. The story and the drama should be the primary focus, not what the characters are wearing.
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