Jean-Guy Lecat. Notes on space.

On Tuesday, 6th July 2010, we had the pleasure of having a conversation at Teatre La Biblioteca with the scenographer and master of theatrical space, Jean-Guy Lecat. For us, he's an important reference; he's worked for over 25 years with Peter Brook, discovering and transforming very many spaces into theatres; such as the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona for The tragedy of Carmen (1985), or Les Bouffes du Nord in Paris (1974). We wanted to recover some of the notes we took that day, which accompany us in designing new theatrical spaces.

1

Theatre can only exist in two categories of space: nature and architecture (streets, interiors...).

From the moment a framework is created... for instance in a quarry... the human becomes too small.

Proportion is the relationship between people and nature.

2

Space is an address, a place we know, where we meet again; a place where we can find others.

It's about surrounding the actor with the life of the audience.

What do we do with the walls we've inherited from an architectural context? They need to be given a meaning.

3

We have to enclose the space to achieve three things. First: to concentrate the action. Second: to create new entrances (for example, the double entrance to the stage facilitates the movement of actors, as they don't have to wait to enter until others have left; it can happen simultaneously). Third: to reinforce the presence of the actor, projecting them towards the audience when we're in perspective spaces that reduce the proportion of the perfomer.

4

In front of lively and neutral walls, any work can be represented without it fitting into any specific era. The "natural" space is the most neutral possible.

Walls are only important because they project the energy of the actors.

Walls reappear throughout a performance when an actor recovers them for themselves and for the action. Therefore, we need to create conditions that allow walls to appear and disappear at will.

5

It's always about enlarging the intimacy between the audience and the actors.

6

The audience itself can create the theatre environment.

In fact, total identification can be created through the way the audience is organized, so that the viewer leaves the seat to join the actor.

Human beings are not alone, they are united. In theatre, we form the form of community: theatre is not for watching shows, but for gathering with people.

7

Isolating characters by erasing the walls of the scene is a way of showing that they have nothing left.

8

The advantage of the space behind a curtain is that it has no distance: it can evoke everyone's imagination.

9

The difference between theatre and other arts is that, given an image, it evokes as many imaginations as people. The problem with photographic images is that we decipher them quickly and then we need another one. Instead, the images produced by our own imagination are linked to our suffering and everything we have experienced, so we can watch them and feel them multiple times.

10

On a stage, we don't need to look for the images we can find elsewhere; we rather find life conveyed by an actor.

11

In Hamlet, there's the idea of a center. A door opens: revenge, another door opens: the mother, yet another door opens: the girlfriend. Hamlet is a character who has to become blind to see within himself.

In aggressive contexts (due to dimension, for instance, or to the quality of color, material), it's not about hiding or covering, but about introducing a boundary that brings together the audience and the actors. Seeking the human scale without ignoring the strength of a space.

12

In Greek tragedies, there's always the idea of movement, of leaving one place and arriving at another.

13

Human beings are part of the past. We are part of the future only through the hands of artists. Finished architecture has no place in the future. In the Middle Ages, construction was never completed. If a building needed to be rebuilt, it was done differently.