Svoboda’s Wonderful Circus
After reading the section on Josef Svoboda in our world theatre guide I really didn’t know what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised to see his work on stage really come into play!
The show was an incorporation of black light majic, funky music, pantomime, grace and of course the trademark of Svoboda…panoromic projection of images that are served as a depth perception (Guys I forgot that art/architecture term for creating perception!)to complement the performance. I was really blown away to see how so many elements just worked! From seeing so many elements work together I was brought back to my childhood waiting for what would happen next. Everything was seamless from the birth of the clowns to their end. Nothing upstaged nor lagged behind. It was exciting and very creative.
Svoboda’s work is “deeply rooted in feeling” by there being a lack of dialogue and made a simple concept of circus relateable for all who have been to the circus. It was like watching a pop-up book from scene to scene with psychodelic elements. Although Svoboda believes that scenographers are not “circus magicians” it was pure socery! I don’t know about anyone else here in blogsville but I would sure love to see more of Svoboda’s work or some how be a part of his creative team.
I never thought of it like that. It was sort of like going back to childhood. What about the concept of the rose leading the seducer and therefore him leading the others’ destiny?
The skilled direction speaks a lot about what you and (I think) Cari mentioned about always being guided where to look and never watching the background for too long. I wonder if the universal theme of the circus will become dated as well. You just don’t see the circus anymore. It used to be such a natural part of childhood but now, not so much.
Unfortunately Svoboda died in 2002, so any chance of working with him is gone. To my knowledge, the only ongoing productions of his are the ones at LM. It is a shame, since he also helped revolutionize “straight play” design as well.