t may not be immediately obvious but the decision
to cast actor/musicians in this new production of
Chess has direct consequences for the show’s
designer, Christopher Woods. He has to take
account of the actor’s needs either to carry an
instrument about with him or have it close at hand or
even in a permanent position within the overall set.
At the same time, Woods has had to limit himself to
having the minimum of props or furniture in order to
illustrate the show’s different locations. Such
impedimenta would normally be transported on and
off the stage by the cast but since they already have
their hands full of musical instruments, Woods has
had to think again. In addition, an actor may wish to
conceal the instrument somewhere on their person
and this need has been incorporated into Woods’
designs for the costumes.
Woods and Chess director Craig Revel Horwood
had already teamed up on a Danish production of the
Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson musical.
“It was a fantastic show,” says Woods. “We had to
be really, really clear with the storytelling. Chess has
so many locations and it is quite operatic in places. In
a way, this production is a development of the one
we did before but, due to using actor–musicians this
time, there’s very little possibility of getting people on
and off the stage and we’ve had to decide that it can’t
be a very ‘proppy’ show. Solving these problems has
to be done in an inventive way in the hope that after
five minutes, audiences will forget that people are
walking around, carrying their instruments.”
Looking at Woods’ model of the set, you can see a
raised platform, rather like a boxing-ring, set in the
middle of the stage.
“Most of the action takes place on this square,”
says Woods. “Once you’re off the square, you’re out
of the action proper. This square can be turned into
water or a chessboard.”
As he points out, Chess
moves swiftly through
a multiplicity of locations,
from the bracing
Tyrolean heights of
I
Merano to the smouldering fleshpots of Bangkok,
from hotel bedrooms to mountain slopes. Without
the usual army of stage personnel to dress and
undress the various sets, how does Woods achieve
the necessary transformations? And has he found a
way of illustrating the intricacies of the game itself?
“I’m using LED, Light-Emitting Diode,” he explains.
“It’s like a television screen, only much bigger.
All the images, all the information that needs to be
communicated can be given visually on the floor
and then up the back wall.”
The designer of Chess has a terrible admission
to make.
“I still don’t know how to play,” he laments. “I tried
to learn the first time we did the show and I tried to
take on board how the pieces moved and in which
direction. I have friends who play all summer long and
I can see that there’s poetry in it and I’m struck by
the way in which they have a polite exchange of
greetings and then go into battle. What I’ve tried to
do in the show is to give proper characters to the
chess pieces and not to make them anonymous. I like
the notion that they have real personalities.”
Inevitably the chess motif of a board of black and
white squares will be a key element of the design.
Woods cites the influence on his thinking of the
opening title sequence of Hitchcock’s North by
Northwest, the work of celebrated designer Saul Bass.