Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Recently, Carnegie Mellon School of Art students Max Hawkins and Robb Godshaw designed and built a giant white plastic bubble held up only by the output of a large air-blower. Not about to let a good thingamajig go to waste, a clutch of Carnegie Mellon Drama students calling themselves bubble:PGH have invaded the contraption and are presenting Jean-Paul Sarte's classic drama No Exit.
2 comments:
I actually saw this show and I would say Ted Hoover’s recollection and I would say that it is pretty accurate. Although when I was in the bubble I don’t know if the condom thought had entered my mind, but looking at it now I understand what he is saying. I also found the play really fitting to the space, it was a great use of the bubble. The white bubble gave a different view on hell, which is a part of the point. I knew that the characters were supposed to be in hell from the beginning, but like them I expected for there to be a torturer or some sort of visual darkness or sadism. It was more appealing that it was not something I anticipated. It felt like an empty void, sort of like the padded rooms in the mental hospitals which to me can very well come across as somewhere I never want to be. The simplicity and size of the bubble also allowed the audience to focus on the three actors and their journey to discover what is going on. What was captivating was how the three of them were going to cope for infinity. The sense that ALL they had were each other for forever and ever was easier to wrap my head around in such an empty space. There was also a cool visual effect used, shadows from the outside. The shadows were used to illustrate the outside world that the three characters had left behind.
The way the design is laid out, after having read the article, being inside a bubble makes sense of the easiest telling possible. To turn what I’m sure other designers have done and create a defined hell, into something so clean and simple, yet still allow the production to play out to its fullest extent, is what I’m sure every designer wants to do at some point. Although being able to provide flashbacks with the use of shadows I find interesting, but I can see how it conveys the purpose of the telling. I don’t think it would have to be done, I presume it’s a matter of choice. With the bubble seeming to be of a semi-transparent material, I think it would be ideal to see some color options that when focused from the outside could change the tone of the play itself, or at least characterize a stronger setting for what this hellish world is to be.
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