The Phrenological Journal & Haunted Typebox Blog

The picture within the theatre within the plan.

One of the many areas of study most interesting to the M.U.E. is the study of theatrical scenes presented in architectural plans of theatre buildings. Though seen as trivial by students of architecture, these theatrical ’scenes’ are as worthy of study as the plans themselves. After all, the architecture of a theatrical building is dependent upon quotidian matters such as space considerations, as well as requirements of use. The theatrical scene, while seemingly arbitrary, is not. This freedom grants it the position of cypher. To view a plan of Halle’s Stadttheatre, for instance, we are shown its passageways, its exits, its basement—I see I’ve lost you already!

Shift your view. Zoom in on proscenium. The curtains are parted. There are no actors (so is it really a theatre?) but rather a second frame. Is this a tableau vivant? No, this is a ‘real’ picture, a picture inside a proscenium, inside the set of a plan for a theatre. We think of Hamlet’s Mousetrap. And what does this picture—this inner picture—show us? A trio of figures presides above a faint cityscape, obscured as if by the smoke of battle. A building beset with columns is at (stage) left, something like a minaret is at (stage) right. Below we see figures with raised swords. The moment feels arrested in time. Are we seeing an annunciation, the halting of some terrible conflict? Do the figures on the ground raise their weapons in vain at attackers from above? Are these avenging valkyries, or angels granting salvation?

The theatre will not tell us, but maybe history (oh, theatre of theatres!) may give us the clue. Would this latter supposition not be played out some fifty years later in the allied bombing of Germany, an event that would alter this very theatre? Are not all our futures inscribed in the dramas we create today?