GHOSTS
For a class assignment, I scenic designed the play Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen. The following is a color-sketch of my final scenic design, additional iterations, and research imagery.
final design.
Ghosts very carefully picks apart the concept of human self-presentation. One may show others exactly what they wish to see, but what is underneath that guise may very well be contradictory. The heavy implications of false-presentation in Ghosts drew me to the weight, private nature, and suffocating potential of drapes and sheet covers. My design centers around giving the characters a space to exist within that has been furiously, thoroughly prepared to look just presentable enough to conceal the true grief, scandal, and disarray behind their pride.
In this space, Mrs. Alving has covered up all her old furniture, all her painful knowledge of her husband’s wrongdoings, in a prideful effort to appear orderly, loyal and appropriate. They protect her image, just as the other characters protect their own through deceit throughout the play. The large green drape framing the window is indicative of Mrs. Alving’s upheld hope for rebirth after releasing herself from the weight of carrying out her late-husband’s legacy. Though she is suffocating beneath the nature of her situation, the dust covers and lifted drape imply that she hopes to one day see through the fog contaminating her mind and life.
iterations.
imagery.
