Marionettes, masks and shadows — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Marionettes, masks and shadows
John Stuart Mill · en
Another group planned the second scene. They imagined themselves on the
inside of the garden, on the other side of the wall shown in the first
scene. They asked themselves, not what do we see, but what happens in
the garden during this scene.
First, Lady Anne plays a lute and Lady Alice dances.
Second, Myles tumbles over the wall.
Third, the Earl of Mackworth comes from the castle and returns into the
castle.
Here is the plan they made. You can see how they planned first to have
plenty of floor space for Lady Alice’s dance, and then, to keep the wall
away from the back drop so that Myles could climb over it. Second, it
provided the necessary exit. Third, through the arrangement of
ivy-covered towers, trellised wall, and garden bench, it made a charming
picture. Fourth, by means of the exit into the castle, the interest of
the audience was carried into the third scene.
[Illustration: [Stage]]
Still another group planned the third scene which is laid in the great
hall of the castle. Their purpose was to make the audience feel the
spaciousness of the great hall and of its galleries and corridors. Again
it was necessary to think of what happened in this scene. The first
difficulty to present itself was this: How can enough space be provided
for eleven puppets to be on the stage at the same time, to move about
freely and moreover keep the stage picture beautiful? A clever boy
thought of making a gallery at the side for Lady Anne and Lady Alice to
sit in. This gave them a place in the picture and enabled their
puppeteers to stand behind the wings of the bridge. Here they were out
of the way of the other nine puppeteers who stood on the bridge behind
the back drop. These illustrations will show you the floor plan and
elevations. Another boy ingeniously planned the doorway seen in the
elevation, for a rear exit. He made two back drops. In the rear drop he
made a stained-glass window. The forward drop he made in two parts. As
you can see in the illustration, he placed one section just a little in
front of the other. This provided space between the two parts, for the
passage of the strings of the king and all the other characters that
should enter from this doorway. To the eyes of the audience there
appeared to be no break in the wall above the doorway, neither did the
eyes of the audience detect the painting of the tiled floor on the rear
back drop, done in perspective, another bit of cleverness, which seemed
to give width to what otherwise would have appeared a very narrow
corridor. Whenever one sees a puppet going out through a door, or
passing by outside a window, he is interested, because it gives the
suggestion of life and activity beyond the stage.