Richard Foreman is known for his signature visual and performative style. If you have seen any of his works you should be familiar with the pieces of string, barriers, dotted lines, bits of fringe, voiceover, ambient soundscapes, lighting instruments pointed at the audience, and more. Each of these elements are used by Foreman to create a specific effect in the audience. Some are there to create a kind of aesthetic distance between the audience and viewer(string, barriers). Other elements are there precisely to overcome that distance and bring the energy of the stage into the space inhabited by the audience(voiceover, lights pointed at the audience). One is simultaneously drawn in and pushed away from the work. That tension gives his works a singular quality and contributes to their almost indescribable power.
What must be remembered when experiencing one of his works, and yes experiencing is more accurate than mere viewing, is that every element of the performance is present for a very specific reason. Nothing is mere decoration. Each aspect of the production works with (and against) every other element to become a cohesive (if not fully understandable) whole. Foreman’s plays are complex psychological machines which manifest for the audience a wide and complicated emotional spectrum.
Many elements that go into a Foreman production have been appropriated by various avant garde theater makers and others exhibiting nothing more than a derivative quality. For once the element is used without concern for its precise role in the work, but rather for surface effect, its power disappears. Foreman is very careful about this and will readily change or cut something that is not working to full effect.
Most of his works have been produced in his long time theater, the Ontological-Hysteric, in St. Mark’s Church. That space is small with a rather low ceiling. As a result the force of his works are direct and powerful. In producing Idiot Savant he has moved from his usual space to a larger theater at The Public. In this space not only is the audience seating area bigger but the stage itself is far deeper and has a much higher ceiling.
While Foreman’s traditional elements are employed in Idiot Savant there has been a translation of sorts in order to make them work in the same way in this larger space. More string than usual as well as a larger focus on designing the audience area in addition to the stage space has had to happen. Every element scaled up properly to this new space except for the lighting. The lighting designer, rather than deeply exploring how Foreman uses the various lighting elements in his plays and making sure they scale to the new space, simply hung those same instruments in the larger theater. The result is a structural failure of the lighting plot that, despite vigilant efforts by Foreman, has not been fully solved.
The lighting designer put together the physical lighting plot and then left Foreman to his own devices for a month to actually light the play. Foreman made numerous changes, structurally, the the plot, taking what was largely unusable and moving them around to actually provide some function and value to the play. Many of the ideas from the original lighting plot read as derivative attempts to achieve a Foremanesque aesthetic in contradistinction to the hardworking elements Foreman typically employs.
Being the true master that he is, Foreman has done a miraculous job of lighting the play to a rather striking effect. After all, in the hands of a master, art can be made from nearly anything. While the work looks good the lighting lacks a certain vitality inherent to much of his previous works due to the oversight by the lighting designer in terms of accurately translating the ideas into the larger theater. While getting bogged down by details such as specking several variations of virtually identical floodlights, the larger conceptual design problem failed to be solved.
What Foreman has done with such a severe structural handicap is admirable. But the sad reality is that the work fails to live up to its true potential. The beauty of the rest of the work (scenery, costumes, sound and staging) which was accurately translated to the larger space is met only half way by the lighting.
The inherent failure of the lighting design in Idiot Savant comes from a lack of foresight on the part of the designer to translate the ideas behind Foreman’s lighting work into a system that would achieve those same results in the larger theater this work is being performed in. Foreman’s use of lighting instruments pointed at the audience creates powerful psychologoical effects. Without properly scaling them out of the Ontological and into the Martinson what we are left with are merely superficial tropes lacking the power and vitality that his work both demands and deserves.
This lack is striking precisely because the rest of the work is so powerful. The vitality and immediacy of the play makes it stand out as a work worthy of this great master’s final homage to the stage. His directorial mastery is shown to powerful effect and anyone doubting his approach to performance would do well to see this piece and reconsider those opinions. All that said, the failure in the lighting design leaves one wishing his collaborator had been more invested in creating an accurate translation of the work rather than merely copying and pasting ideas without getting behind their authentic essence.
Tags: design, heather carson, lighting, richard foreman, theory
