Revolving Stage Captures Nervous Pace of Chapman Drama

When Robert Chapman first brought the script for "The General" to the Harvard Theatre Group, he was anxious that the scene shifts be made quickly--in fifty seconds or less.

Set designer Antony L. Herrey '54 took Chapman's specifications and cut the requested time by more than two thirds. For the time required to shift between the two elaborately detailed and vastly different settings is only fifteen seconds.

Herrey achieved the amazingly rapid time by the use of a revolving stage--the first ever seen at Harvard. Using such a device he has produced settings that are superior to any that have been used here in a student-produced play and comparable to sets in the professional theatre.

Contrasting Sets

Chapman and Louis Coxe, co-authors of the play, used only two sets, but they are totally different, and there are six scene changes. When the curtain rises, the General's office is seen. The script says ". . . windowless, blank, austere walls. Sense of claustrophobia." Herrey achieved the desired effect by the use of a shallow stage and high ceiling.

The General's living room is completely different. The ceiling is low, to create an appearance of depth. Probably the best feature of the set is the hallway that leads upstage on stage right. With the aid of Neil Smith's excellent lighting, Herrey has created an impression of great depth that effectively balances the "claustrophobic" office.

These contrasting scenes were made possible only by the revolving stage, for the absence of wings and the shallow depth of the Pi Eta Theatre make the storage of the elaborate flats that would have been necessary impossible.

Time Factor

But the biggest factor in favor of the revolving stage was the necessity for rapid scene shifts. "The General is a tense, nervous play where events follow upon each other at fever pitch," Herrey said. "In a situation of this kind, swift scene changes are imperative to maintain the intensity of the drama."

Herrey had already designed a revolving stage for use in Sanders Theatre, but the construction difficulties that would be caused by the poor stage discouraged dramatic groups from trying it. But the small Pi Eta stage was another story.

"Confronted with the authors' request for scene changes in less than 50 seconds--an unusually fast shift as it is--I felt that a revolve containing both scenes already pre-set was the only effective solution," Herrey explained.

Last Play

Another reason for the new settings was that "The General" is the last play that will be given by the actors who founded the Theatre Group four years ago, and the H.T.G. wanted something unique.

Almost the entire cast and staff of "The General" were freshmen in the spring of 1949 when the H.T.G. materialized out of the wreckage of the Veterans' Workshop, which had become the Brattle Theatre.

The aim of the Group was to provide as near professional experience as possible to its members, many of whom went on to achieve a reputation on the New York stage. Each production, therefore, was planned as an exercise in some new aspect of the theatre. Most memorable of the Group's work has been its 1951 productions of "Darkness at Noon" and Arthur Millers adaptation of "An Enemy of the People." This year, "The General" firmly upholds the Group's tradition of a professional polish to its work. And Antony Herrey's brilliant settings do more than a little towards creating the play's shine.