The Milk Train doesn't Stop here Anymore/ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [antikvár]

JJ AUTHOR'S NOTES Ki ;'< Sometimes theatrical effects and devices such as those I have adopted in the third (and I hope final) version of this play are ascribed to affectation or 'artinessso it may be helpful for me to explain a bit of my intention in the use of these effects and devices, and let the play's production justify or condemn them. I have added to the cast a pair of stage assistants that function in a way that's between the Kabuki Theatre of Japan and the chorus of Greek theatre. My excuse, or reason, is that I ^^ think the play will come off better the further it is removed |f from conventional theatre since it's been rightly described as an allegory and as a 'sophisticated fairy-tale'. ^ Stage assistants in Japanese Kabuki are a theatrical expedient. They work on-stage during the performance, shifting set-pieces, placing and removing properties and furniture. Now and then in this play they have lines to speak, very short ones that serve as cues to the principal performers. They should be regarded, therefore, as members of the cast. ' They sometimes take a balletic part in the action of the play. They should be dressed in black, very simply, to represent invisibility to the other players. The other players should never appear to see them, even when they speak or take part in the action, except when they appear 'in costume'. i The setting represents the library and bedroom of the white ' villa, downstage, and the bedrooms of the pink and blue villinos: most importantly, the terrace of the white villa, ' which I think should extend the whole width of the pro- ' scenium with a small apron for a white iron bench, a step down from the terrace. Separations between interior and exterior should not be clearly defined except by lighting. When a single interior is being used, the other interior areas should be masked by light, folding screens, painted to blend with the cyclorama, i ¦' that is, in sea-and-sky colours: they should be set in place and L':