Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones's Understanding Theatre Space

“The theatre space is a product of the interplay between stage space, gestural space and dramatic space and, according to Anne Uberseld, it is constructed, on the basis of an architecture, a (pictorial) view of the world, or a space sculpted essentially by the actors' bodies.” – Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, “Understanding Theatre Space”, 2002. Theatre, as we know it, is a microcosm of the real world that we encounter in our day to day lives. Aristotle had believed that theatre could be used as a medium to have a profound impact on the audience; he called this impact “catharsis” meaning a purgation of excess of emotions from a person’s inner being. According to Aristotle, this purgation was made possible by involving the spectator emotionally in

The front stage, usually called the proscenium is an area that is equated to a picture frame. All the action taking place in the drama takes place within this frame and anything that exists beyond it is a part of the backstage. The backstage is the area from where the action is controlled, such as the control of props, costume change or introduction/concealment of characters according to the demand of the dramatic situation. The arena is the area from where the audience views the drama taking place on the stage. Now once this basic structural distinction of theatre space has been understood, what remains to be discussed in depth is how this space is manipulated, in tandem with gestural space and the space that the actor’s body sculpts in the process of enactment, to produce a certain kind of impact on the

A fine example to consider for this would be John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” that premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre on May 8th, 1956. The audience, at that point of time, mainly comprised of the bourgeois upper-class and the content of most dramas then dealt with the lifestyles of the aristocrat. Osborne’s play, which also came to be called “kitchen-sink drama” later, incited a reaction of shock as the curtains went up for the first time. This was because the scene that met the eyes of the audience who had come expecting a bourgeois play was that of the squalid home of the labour class. The first scene comprised of the character of Alison, clad casually in a shirt, ironing clothes while the characters of Jimmy and Cliff sat reading newspapers and smoking cigarettes. The expression of shock that was collectively expressed by the audience, some of whom left the theatre in disgust, was evoked by the sight of the squalid lower class household (a subject not considered worthy to find portrayal in a play) as well as the crude body language adopted by the actors playing Jimmy and Cliff to portray their respective characters’ lower class upbringing. The minimalistic set contained two chairs, an ironing board and a poorly supplied kitchen with a kettle and a few tea cups. To add to this, the scene began with Jimmy