Examples needed

lpasch1

Im researching the theme of 'the room' in film & theatre history
Does anyone know any scenes where the room itself becomes an element of the play (eg. Description in script/ or whats outside of it/ or just the intensity of it)
I know its a difficult question, but any recommendations will be much appreciated.

Spore

Harold Pinter's The Room is the obvious example - the room is a highly potent symbol. The idea of previous residents, indeterminacy, the visits of outsiders becoming increasingly ominous; from Mr. Kidd who can't recall how many floors are in the apartment block he's renting, to the Sands' couple who would like to rent the room despite Rose's insistence that it's already let... to the visit of the mysterious Riley and his message from beyond the grave.

The Dumbwaiter also by Pinter features a mysterious hatch device (the titular dumbwaiter) through which mysterious messages are relayed to would-be assassins Ben and Gus.

Rooms and buildings are highly symoblic in all O'Casey dramas. He was making a political point with showing Dublin tenaments in all their unvarnished glory. But most importantly O'Casey uses the space in the rooms to show the claustraphoic effect of poverty, how privacy is a commodity you buy in this world. In Juno and the Paycock Captain Boyle is continually hiding food / hiding from his wife Juno. As news of their 'inheritance' comes through the Boyles fill up their apartment with the gimcracks of materialism in a vulgar display of status. Symbolically all these chattals are removed and repossessed by the end of the play leaving the Boyle's symbolically stripped and reduced to Boyle's blathering empty rhetoric "Th' whole worl's in a terrible state o' chassis"

For film look at Polanski's early work. Most importantly Repulsion and The Tenant. With Repulsion Polanski actually altered the dimensions of the apartment throughout the film to reflect the protagonist's declining mental state. He widened the set and began to use wide-angle lenses to show the distorting effect of schizophrenia. Also in The Tenant the building itself appears to 'come alive'. There's the mysetious bathroom with the hieroglypics, the clothes the young man finds that belong to the the previous tennant. Then the tooth he finds in the wall... Ultimately the tennant takes on the persona of the previous occupier and in a sequence which explores Nietzschean recurrence, the tennant after attempting suicide wakes up in hospital swaddled in bandages, screaming as he had previously witnessed the former tennant do. Difference is he's the 'mummy' now. Brilliant film.

Also The Haunting from 1963 - one of the greatest examples of a house 'coming alive' in film history. And a very creepy film it is too. The house is literally possessed by the maleficient person who originally designed the house. With no right angles in the design, doors open and close by themselves. "Add up all those off-angles and you get a massive distortion in the building itself". Terrifying film!

Recent examples in the theatre would include McPherson's The Seafarer (the highly symbolic votive-light, the general disarray in the furniture and items salvaged from pubs). Big Ole Piece of Cake - middle class living room invaded by working-class would-be thieves. Lay Me Down Softly in The Project at the moment, is played in the round with audience at all sides around an improvised boxing ring. The ring itself becomes the central metaphor in the play - it's a good piece of theatre too!

In all theatre the set will be highly symbolic and the use of space has attracted a lot of articles and academic discussions. You shouldn't have too much trouble researching it!

Best of luck with the paper.

lpasch1

Thanks for such a full response
Ive seen 'the dumb waiter' but not 'the room', and will watch it later tonight.
early Polanski has a strange relation to Pinter in that the tensions are often psychological, I'll certainly research the O'Casey dramas, all of your recommendations in fact.
Thank you

chasmcb

You could also look at the plays of Enda Walsh where characters are confined within rooms/apartments; Bedbound, Walworth Farce and New Electric Ballroom for instance.

In recent Irish play, The Quare Land, by new author John McManus, the action all takes place in a dingy bathroom where a gnarly old farmer sits in his bath while a covetous property developer tries to buy a field off him. It's currently on tour as it happens.

ChiGung

"The Room” in theatre is a very broad brief but “Twelve Angry Men” is a good example. The setting is different and a lot of the characters feel trapped and are desperate to escape the intensity of the room.

“Rear Window” is all about the intensity and stuff going on outside the room.

lpasch1

Rear Window has provided a very interesting angle, Thanks for that.
Will look into Enda Walsh
Cheers guys

faceman

ChiGung wrote: »

"The Room” in theatre is a very broad brief but “Twelve Angry Men” is a good example. The setting is different and a lot of the characters feel trapped and are desperate to escape the intensity of the room.

Random fact about the filming of 12 Angry Men. As filming progressed Lumet decreased the set size to help alleviate the tension among the characters and hopefully create a similar affect on screen.