PARTISAN REVIEW
illustration of the dialogue. Barrault has revolted against this con–
ception. Having no symbolic convention, his is necessarily eclectic
and personal, but this does not diminish its effect. His stage direc–
tions for a production of Racine's
Phedre
show his method of formu–
lating a production. "On one side, sunlight, the marine air; on the
other, dark corners given by walls, by arches.... In this country of
light, one seeks the shadows, one hides oneself therein. The nights
are white: Sleep has fled, and, during the day, men wander about
like sleep-walkers. . . . There are nightmares in Trezene. The task
of the decorator therefore resides in a
wise
division of shadows and
lights." Another production conceived in
clair obscur
is his
Hamlet.
Here the setting and most of the costumes are gray, a color which
can represent opulence as well as mourning. Rosencrantz and Guil–
denstern are costumed in the same color as the walls to indicate
their self-effacement. Only Ophelia is colorfully dressed in the
mad scene, in vivid tones to match the wildness of the episode.
Shapes are equally significant. In
Hamlet
the ragged tops of the
throne room walls, reproduced in the king's crown, give a feeling of
hypocrisy hard to analyze. The setting of
Les Nuits de la Colere
folds up before your eyes, indicating the flimsiness on which the
whole Vichy regime, the subject of the play, was based. The setting
for his production of Kafka's
The Trial
(adapted by Gide and
himself) is built on two levels, the upper corresponding to Kafka's
freedom, the lower- a long claustrophobic tunnel- to his guilt.
The Chinese Bowery theater also gives a good example of a
purely theatrical use of music and sound. Percussion instruments
underscore the rhythm of the actor's movements, changing with his
mood; wind instruments prolong and intermingle with his cries, and
suddenly a gong will crash through with the vibrations of a pulse.
In the Western theater sound is added as a part of the illusory recipe.
In the sound-library of a film company, "heartbeats" is catalogued
below "hand-grenades" and above "horses-hoofs" and cut into the
picture about as mechanically as the title music. Barrault's theater
revives an animistic use of sound. In his stage-noted edition of
Claudel's
Le Soulier de Satin,
after a plaintive opening monologue
a music note reads: "All the orchestra then replies to this complaint,
like one heart, with languor, that it 'knows everything,' " and below,
"The orchestra begins a long series of themes suggesting the sea
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