‘The Man Who was Thursday: A Nightmare‘ was written by G. K. Chesterton in 1908. Inspired by both political situation in European society of that period of time and theological reflections, this book represents
a thriller “inside out“, an alternative phantasmagoric world, where everything is not that it seems to be,
the most terrific enemy becomes a friend and comrade-in-arms, and participants of fierce Anarhists’ conspiracy prove to be law-abiding detectives, trying to prevent the act of therror and the murder of Russian tsar and French president.
a thriller “inside out“, an alternative phantasmagoric world, where everything is not that it seems to be,
the most terrific enemy becomes a friend and comrade-in-arms, and participants of fierce Anarhists’ conspiracy prove to be law-abiding detectives, trying to prevent the act of therror and the murder of Russian tsar and French president.
The plot of ‘The Man Who was Thursday‘ unfolds against the background of different environments that keenly change each other during the whole book. It reflects the mad pace of events that happen with characters. Changing conditions of atmosphere, lighting and locations create the surreal world of the nightmare, free from logic and sense. At the same time, the duality of characters, transforming during the plot from detectives to anarchists and then from anarchists to detectives supports the feeling of ambiguity.
It is supposed that stage set design for the performance should be a fluctuating transforming space, depicting both changeable environment and duality of characters. ‘Cityscape‘ turns to ‘landscape‘ or to ‘interior‘, and all these three conditions are contained in the one installation. Fixed sourses of ligh underlines transformations with play of shadows. ‘Landscape‘ becomes a shadow of an industrial city because of a pattern of framework of the screens, visible through transluent fabric. Intimate light in scenes in ‘interior‘ is turned to light of windows on streets of a night town. The pattern of framework depicts the abstract image of cityscape, landscape, and interior. Different scale of openings in screens allow to transmit a feeling of a space, where action is unfolding. Overlapping of screens creates new accidental patterns of openings and adds
a feeling of a deep multilayering space.
a feeling of a deep multilayering space.
The chosen space for the performance is the library on the 2nd floor of ZIL Culture Centre by Vesnin brothers. This is a roomy hall with a mezzanine, wide windows, girded the space on the perimeter. Rebuilding period allows to use this hall as a temporary theatre stage. At the same time, library is located under the Black Box Theatre and can be used as another one alternative experimental stage. Double-layered space creates a facility for organization of the auditorium both on and beneath the mezzanine. The stage can be sited against the windows, in the main part of the room. The mezzanine is used for additional seats for viewers, and also, in several scenes (e.g.The Chase of the President) actors climb and pass through the mezzanine, returning to the stage. This creates a possibility of ‘loops of movements‘ that add a feeling of the expanded space where characters are acting.
Wide windows allow to use evening sunlight in ‘landscape‘ scenes that are mostly illuminated with daylight. Natural sun rays will create additional atmospherical effect penetrating through semitrasparent screens. Furthermore, the view on the park and pattern of windows can be used as a backdrop.
