Cathy's Art Diary

Dry exhibition at the National Theatre looking at how they had performed Greek plays and how the theatre itself had been influenced by Greek theatre. I say dry as it was very text and av based. It would have benefited from a few more set models or costumes. The av wasn't displayed in an engaging way. It grouped 5 or 6 clips or interviews into a loop which took a lot time to watch while standing up in ear phones. I'm sure the content was excellent but it wasn't conducive to lingering. My favourite section looked at how the Olivier space is based on a Greek theatre design and how Sir Peter Hall, the first director, and Sir Denys Lasdun, the architect, visited theatres in Greece together for inspiration. The display marked the production "Bachaae" which I was there to see and really enjoyed. With that hindsight I realised I had got more form the display than I thought as I understood more about the work particularly about the role of music and movement in it. ...

Lovely display at the Sam Wannamaker Theatre at the Globe of work by Rutgers BFA theatre designers from New Jersey, USA, who are currently in residence there. I was a bit confused as I saw a similar show at the Globe last year. I assume this was by a new intake of students but that wasn’t clear. Costume design and costume technician students had to design and create a cocktail hat that embodies a Shakespearean character which would work under candlelight. My favourite was this one for Lady Macbeth. My favourites though were by scenic and lighting design students who created small open boxes of a scenery design which, when you pressed a switch, produced a shadow on the back which was stunningly created from the shadow of the scene in front. My pick this year was this one of Bottom. No end date given but it had disappeared by next visit in February 2024. 

Stunning exhibition at Tate Modern on the life and work of the Russian artist Natalia Goncharova. The show was wonderfully colourful and included paintings, textile designs, book illustrations and theatrical designs. It chartered her work from rural Imperial Russia to her life in Paris after the 1920s. I loved the early work and it was a nice touch to show it with a peasants outfit of the time to show you where the colours and vibrancy came from. She showed an interest in textiles throughout her life and in fact the name of her family estate meant “cloth factory” and a number of the pictures in this section looked at the process of cloth making. The show looked at how Moscow, where Goncharova moved when she was eleven, was one of the best places in the world to see modern part as two industrialists, Ivan Morozov and Sergie Shchukin, had huge collections which they opened to the public and there was a room of pictures Goncharova would have seen there plus works they purc...

Nice exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the theatre designs of Jocelyn Herbert. Herbert’s first design was in 1957, a time of radical change in British theatre and her work tended towards a minimalist style. She worked with many of the main playwrights of the time such as Samuel Beckett and Arnold Wesker. She often worked on the costumes and well as the set for a show seeing the visual impact as a whole. I loved the postcards to her from people she’d worked with and the tiny figures she’d made to show how costumes worked with the sets. The show also looked at the process of mask making using ones she had designed for Oresteia in 1981 as examples. Closes 11 January 2015.  

Small exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the creative processes behind their current production of Timon of Athens. I saw the show a few weeks ago so was fascinated to see how the show was put together? I was amazed that all the furniture for the play had been made by the props department including the set of plush red velvet dining chairs. I also liked the fact that, despite the play was set in a contemporary setting, the exhibition also placed it in its historic world with various Jacobean objects on show.  

Nice little exhibition at the National Theatre explaining how they staged the wonderful play Warhorse. I had really enjoyed the play so it was fascinating to see the mechanics behind it. One of the large horse puppets is hanging in the foyer and the cabinets show how the horses developed and how they worked. I liked an interactive display to show you how the shadow work operated and it was good to see the costumes in their distressed state. And of course the star of the show, the goose, was there. 

A small exhibition at the National Theatre to show the finalists’ designs in the Linbury Prize for Stage Design. As well as pictures of the designs it also included small mock up of the sets like old Victorian children’s theatre toys and sketch books collecting ideas for the designs. I particularly liked a design for the Watermill Theatre as it’s a space I have been to and liked.