Joslin Mckinney and Scott Palmer, Eds.: Scenography Expanded: An Introduction To Contemporary Performance Design

BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS
JOSLIN MCKINNEY AND SCOTT PALMER, eds.

Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to
Contemporary Performance Design.
London and New York: Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, 2017. 216 pp.
CLAIRE CAROLAN
Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design is an invaluable col-

lection of articles written by an international buffet of scenography researchers from the
UK, US, Australia, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands. The collection is deftly edited by
Joslin McKinney and Scott Palmer, both from the University of Leeds. Scenography Expanded
puts forth what scenographers have known for decades: scenography matters—and is ripe
for expanded discourse beyond its aesthetic and decorative function. The articles concep-
tualize scenography as a performative act that “can operate or reflect the political, social,
cultural or ecological impact […] through performance events” (McKinney and Palmer 1).
Indeed, the collection moves beyond the standard aesthetic-centric analysis of scenogra-
phy and into “scenography as a framework to analyze” (Brooks and Collins 95) a host of
contemporary issues.
Scenography Expanded is divided into five sections that represent contemporary research
concerns: Technological Space, Architectural Space, Agency, Audiences and Materials.
Although these topics may feel overworked in other fields of theatre studies, discussion in
the context of scenography is quite underdeveloped. The articles demonstrate the interna-
tional expansion of scenography into a methodology for research. For example, in “‘Devices
of Wonder’: Globalizing Technologies in the Process of Scenography” (23-38) Christopher
Baugh explores connections between colonialism, digital technology and scenography. He
suggests “the technologies that underpin the manufacture of spectacle are also the tech-
nologies that provide the basis for expansion and control of the economic and political
capital” (23). In “Between Symbolic Representation and New Critical Realism: Architecture
as Scenography and Scenography as Architecture,” Thea Brejzek seeks to push past time
worn binaries (64-78). Brejzek’s focus is the more intriguing interstices created by binaries,
to provoke “debate from a scenographic perspective through close readings of the architec-
tural scenographies and performative architectures” (64).
Kathleen Irwin, one of the rare Canadian voices on the international scenography
research stage contributes the article “Scenographic Agency: A Showing-Doing and a
Responsibility for Showing-Doing” (111-24). Irwin’s article is reflective of growing interest
in applied theatre in Canada. Irwin discusses the thickening of the term scenography to pro-
pose “ways in which the field manifests its essential role/responsibility to both show things
and do things in the world” (111). She presents three case studies that demonstrate a range of
ways an applied approach to scenography aids in understanding and responsibly considering
what scenography “does” in performance (122). Irwin discusses contemporary refugee crises
in Europe informed by the latent scenographic action that is harnessed by “the potential
TRIC / RTAC • 39.2 / 2018 • PP 263-270 263

of found site, adjacent populations and their interests” (116). For example, one of the three
case studies examined is the Holland Festival’s 2014 production Die Schutzbefohlenen.1 This
particular case study demonstrates how the scenographies of site specific performances in
places of past trauma can “constitute a potent agentic assemblage” (116). In this example
the original performance of this piece took place in a church that provided sanctuary for
eighty Pakistani refugees in 2012.
Part three, “Agency” is interestingly the longest section of the book giving a range
of views on “inscribing matter with meaning” (17). An excellent inclusion in this sec-
tion is Melissa Trimingham’s “Ecologies of Autism: Vibrant Space in Imagining Autism”
(184-95), which examines how scenography might be expanded into therapeutic applica-
tions. Trimingham explores “sustained intersubjective engagement [with autistic children]
through the medium of scenography” (184) taking the concept of drama therapy into new
avenues.
Expanded Scenography is structured to “help the reader navigate the range and breadth of
contemporary work…[in] hope that the concepts of relationality, affectivity and materiality in
scenography will resonate in slightly different ways in each of the parts” (14). McKinney and
Palmer suggest that the need for this collection stems from a “scenographic turn” wherein,
scenographic practice has expanded from an exclusive function as a craft-based

practice serving the performance of a theatrical text to incorporate autonomous
art practices that operate in contexts beyond theatre buildings and engage directly
with social as well as the cultural dimensions of contemporary experience. (3)
Previous texts about scenography tended to focus on the artist and their impact on
theatre (see for example Burian 1971; Holmberg 1996; Parker 1996; Doona 2002; Howard
2002; Rewa 2004) but this collection focuses on the spectator as observer/participant and
scenography as a performative act (McKinney and Palmer). The articles are theoretical in
tone and do assume a pre-requisite level of scenographic knowledge. The questions posed
are important for the both twenty-first century scenography student and professional prac-
titioner. One shortcoming of this book is the presentation of the visual content. There are
total of thirty-four colour plates collected in two unlisted sections in the book, but as is
often the case in scenography books, the images fail to consistently connect to the writ-
ten content in any meaningful way. The images are laid out with two or three per page, as
a result they are small and the fine details are difficult to see. Links to online sources for
these images would allow for readers to view them in a larger format.
The accessible and engaging content in Expanded Scenography is curated so that the
individual articles are strong when excerpted for specific class use or as a primary text for
inclusion in both upper level undergraduate or graduate design courses. It is no longer ade-
quate to simply decorate our performance space without considering “the potential of the
scenography as a critical practice or as a way of thinking about performative encounter[s]”
(McKinney and Palmer 3). It is an overdue and very welcome addition to scholarly sceno-
graphic texts that will hopefully promote continued expansion of scenography as a research
methodology.
264 PP 263-270 • 2018 / 39.2 • TRIC / RTAC

Notes
1 Die Schutzbefohlenen (translation, The Suppliants). Directed and designed by Nicholas
Stemann, and performed at the Transformatorhuis Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam.
Works Cited
Burian, Jarka. The Scenography of Josef Svoboda. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press,
1971. Print.
Doona, Liam. “Hope, Hopelessness/Presence, Absence: Scenographic Innovation and
the Poetic Spaces of Jo Mielziner, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.” Exploring
Scenography. Ed. Malcolm Griffiths. London: The Society of British Theatre Designers
in association with Nottingham Trent University, 2003. 55-64. Print.
Holmberg, Arthur. The Theatre of Robert Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996. Print.
Howard, Pamela. What is Scenography?. Abingdon and Oxon: Routledge, 2004. Print.
McKinney, Joslin and Scott Palmer, eds. Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary
Performance Design. London: Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, 2017. Print.
Parker, Ellie. “Talking About Theatre Design.” Studies in Theatre Production, 13.1 (1996): 72-82.
Print.
Rewa, Natalie. Scenography in Canada: Selected Designers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2004. Print.
BARRY FREEMAN
Staging Strangers: Theatre and Global Ethics.
Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. 198 pp.
EURY COLIN CHANG
In an age often characterized by terms such as mass migration and globalization, Barry Freeman’s
book has deep resonance and application within theatre studies and other socio-political
fields. His book astutely explores how the current climate fosters a simultaneous fascina-
tion with, but also hesitation towards, accepting “strangers.”
Chapter One situates the study within Toronto’s theatre milieu, then as expected, credits
the many scholars who laid the foundation for Freeman’s research: including but not limited
to Charles Taylor (“The Politics of Recognition”), Neil Bissoondath (Selling Illusions) and
Sunera Thobani (Exalted Subjects). Overall, Freeman makes strides at further developing an
“ethical way of looking” by generously quoting the work of Sara Ahmed, and by engaging
with her concerns regarding the production of strangers through an encounter which “itself
already assumes the possibility and virtue of ‘knowing’ strangers” (59). This book provides
TRIC / RTAC • 39.2 / 2018 • PP 263-270 265

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BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS

JOSLIN MCKINNEY AND SCOTT PALMER, eds.

Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design is an invaluable col-

TRIC / RTAC • 39.2 / 2018 • PP 263-270 263

scenographic practice has expanded from an exclusive function as a craft-based

264 PP 263-270 • 2018 / 39.2 • TRIC / RTAC

EURY COLIN CHANG

TRIC / RTAC • 39.2 / 2018 • PP 263-270 265

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