Editors’ introduction

Abstract

This general issue, although not thematically conceived, nevertheless over the course of four articles moves back and forth between what scenography does, following Rachel Hann (Beyond Scenography, 2019), to positing an argument for how scenography comes into being. All the articles offer a detailed and comprehensive exposition of the conceptual and multimodal practical approaches underpinning the development of the works described, exposing the interface between functionality, aesthetics and meaning. As a result, they offer real insight not only into the creative process but also into the myriad ways in which audience perception can be shaped by scenographic means. The first two articles are also linked thematically as they both focus on the plays of Samuel Beckett, in this instance his radio plays and their reimagining as immersive performance, installation and participatory event, by Dublinbased Pan Pan Theatre. In ‘The Listening Environment: The Impact of Space, Sound and Lighting in Pan Pan’s All That Fall’, Chloé Duane combines in-depth performance analysis, interviews with theatre practitioners, and a detailed examination of audience feedback, to consider the carefully crafted spatial, visual and aural elements of Pan Pan Theatre’s 2011 stage adaptation of Beckett’s All That Fall (1957). Duane is interested in how these scenographic elements combine with Beckett’s dramaturgy to steer the audience towards their ‘individual and internal visualisation of the play’s narrative’. Jimmy Eadie is a sound designer who has worked closely with Pan Pan Theatre over a number of years. In ‘Sounding Beckett: A Practitioner’s Perspective’ he provides a forensic analysis of the rigorous research and painstaking process, the testing and retesting of ideas and materials that underpin his soundscapes for Pan Pan’s adaptations of three of Beckett’s radio plays in different staged environments. Once again, we visit the 2011 adaptation of All that Fall (1957), in addition to Embers (1959) and Cascando (1963), all restaged by Pan Pan between 2011 and 2022. Eadie’s reflexive analysis of his practice, whilst reinforcing the integrity of sound as an artistic medium in its own right, also highlights the value of collaboration and interdisciplinarity in the production of affective theatrical sound design. With their focus on scenography and audience perception, both these articles move beyond established scholarship that considers Beckett’s plays as literary texts and offer a much-needed analysis of them as plays in performance. The next article and the visual essay that follows it are both concerned with light, or rather light and darkness. They both present arguments that break down the binary of light and dark to offer a more nuanced appreciation of the subtle effects and changes in the texture of the materiality of light as it fluctuates between those two states. In ‘(House)Lights Out: Encounters with Darkness and Compositions of Going Dark’, Yaron Shyldkrot asks us to pay more attention to houselights in the auditorium and their potential for settling or unsettling the audience by creating particular atmospheres and effects, attuning the audience to their reception of the performance. He takes issue with what he considers to be the overuse of the term ‘plunge’ to describe the transition into darkness and offers three examples of productions where the ‘dramaturgical and scenographic’ significance of that transition is intrinsic to the meaning of the work. Jakob Oredsson’s visual essay ‘Symbiotic Scenes – Incessantly Interweaved’ meticulously