topics: |  drama | translation | french

Orphée, tr. Carl Wildman
Antigone, tr. Carl Wildman
Intimate relations (Les Parents terribles), tr. Charles Frank
The holy terrors (Les monstres sacr'es) tr. Edward O. Marsh
The eagle with two heads (L'aigle a deux tetes) tr. Carl Wildman

I was struck by the vivid details in Cocteau's stage settings.  One can
almost visualize the entire space.  Some of these are excerpted.

Excerpts: Stage directives

Thrace

A room  in Orphee's villa. It is a strange room rather like the room of a
conjurer. In spite of the April-blue sky and the clear light, one suspects
that it is surrounded by mysterious forces. Even familiar objects have a
suspicious air.

First of all, in a box in the form of a niche, well in the center, there lives
a white horse, whose legs are very much like those of a man. On the right of
the horse is another little niche in which an empty pedestal stands framed by
laurel. On the extreme right a door which opens on to the garden; when the
door is open the leaf hides the pedestal. On the left  of the horse an
earthenware wash basin. On the extreme left a French window, pushed half
outwards - it looks on to the terrace which surrounds the villa.

In the foreground in the right wall is a very large mirror; in the background
a bookcase. In the middle of the left wall a door opening into Eurydice's
room. A sloping ceiling closes in the room like a box.

The room is furnished with two table and three white chairs. On the right a
writing table and one of the chairs.

On the left of the stage, the second table which is covered with a cloth
reaching to the fllor, and thereon fruits, plates, a decanter, and glasses,
like the cardboard objects of jugglers. One chair stands squarely behind this
table, and one nearby on the right.

A chair cannot be added or taken away, nor the openings distributed otherwise,
for this is a practical set in which the smalles detail plays its part like
the apparatus in an acrobatic number.

Apart from the skyu blue and the pad of dar red velvet that borders the top of
the little door of the box dissimulating the middle of the horse's body -
there is no color.

The scenery should recall the sham airplanes and ships of certain
photographers.

After all, there is that same harmony, made of harsh simplicity, between the
seeting, characters, and events as between model and painted canvas in the
plain camaieu style of card portraits.

Intimate relations

Act One:

Scene: Yvonne's bedroom. The door to Leo's room is on the left in the
wings. Downstage left, there is an arm-chair and a dressing table. Upstage
left, there is a door leading to the rest of the flat. Upstage right, another
door leading to the bathroom, which appears to be white and brightly lit. The
door to the hall is in the wings on the right. Upstage right, with the foot
toward the centre, a very big and very untidy bed. Dressing gowns, scarves,
towels, etc. are scattered over it. By the end of the bed, a chair. Upstage
center, a large cupboard, large double doors below, small double doors
above. One wing of the upper double doors has the awkward habit of opening
slowly at the most unexpected moments, and frequently, during the action, Leo
automatically tries to shut it, only for it to open a few seconds later. Near
the bed, a small table with a lamp. The chandelier in the center of  the room
is not alight. More dressing gowns lie about untidily. The windows are felt to
be at the side of the auditorium. An unpleasant half light comes from them,
that of the block of flats opposite. The lighting in the room is dim.

The Holy Terrors

Act One:

Esther's dressing room in the theater she directs. Classic dressing room of
great actress. Screens covered with muslin of all possible shades. Mirror and
make-up on the left across the corner of the stage. A small Chinese screen
around it. Door right, giving onto the corridor. Divan, armchairs, chairs,
baskets of flowers with ribbons. Red carpet, very worn. And a mat. Lights from
lamps and naked bulbs left and right of the mirror. All pearl color.

The Eagle with two heads

Act One:
Scene: one of The queen's bedrooms in Krantz Castle. Not only does The Queen
rarely stay long in residence in one castle but she changes her bedroom every
night - whe never sleeps in the same room. Perhaps, having abandoned her first
room and used several others,she might return to the first. I mean to say that
she never sleeps in the same room on two nights running.

This particular bedroom is spacious, and in the middle of it stands a canopied
bed. In the section of a wall that stands obliquely across the right-hand side
of the stage is high window opening onto a park and on a level with the
treetops. On the opposite wall (set obliquely on the left) hangs a huge
portrait of the King; there is also a fire-place which flickers with light and
shadow. It is dark. A night of thunder and silent lightning. Chandeliers. The
queen likes only candlelight. In the foreground, not far from the fireplace,
is a small table over which a cloth is spread, and this is the only splash of
white in this scene of moving shadows, dim light, gleams from the fire, and
lightning flashes.  On the table alight repast has been prepared. There is
wine in an ice bucket, goat cheese, honey, fruit, and some of those country
made cakes shaped like the entwined letters of a monogram. A silver chandelier
ornaments the table and concentrates the light on the cloth, on the two places
set opposite each other, and on the two empty chairs.

A secret little door, hidden by the King's portrait, on the left of the bed,
opens onto the corrideor which the queen uese to reach this bedroom. In the
right foreground is a double door.

Act two:

The queen's library in Krantz. A large room with shelves and tables loaded
with books. At the back, a broad wooden staricase rises, opposite the
audience, to the upper gallery, which is also covered with books and
ornamented by horses heads. At the top of this staricase, with its brass
banister rail and knobs, a small landing and a great window looking onto the
sky above the park. On the right and on the left of this window are busts of
Minerva and Socrates. In the right foreground, on a large round table, is a
chandelier and a globe of the heavens. Near the table, a chair and a  broad
armchair. Upstage of the table, a sort of easel or frame on which targets for
shooting can be fixed. On the floor, running from this frame to the extreme
left where there is an opening in the bookshelves leading to a door, is a
linoleum track. By the targets is a gun and pistol rack. On both sices, there
are doors set in the bookshelves. Downstage left of the door, the wall above a
white glazed earthenware stove is covered with a huge map. In front of the
stove, chair and comfortable armchairs. Shining parquet floor and red rugs.