Prop: Five large dolls
Appearing in: “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” Chicago Opera Theater
In Mozart’s opera “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” director Justin Way and production designers Andrew Hays and Kimm Kovac searched for a playful way to depict the East-meets-West journey of Belmonte–a young Spanish nobleman attempting to rescue his fiance who is being held captive in the palace of the lord of a Turkish harem.
“We wanted the world to be inhabited by something that was ambiguous–that could be benign or menacing, joyous or threatening depending on the scene,” says Way. The three Australians found what they needed when they saw a photo of Russian nesting dolls in an advertisement. “These dolls that get smaller and smaller are a good metaphor for Belmonte,” says Way, “because as he goes further and further into the story, he discovers more and more about this alien culture.”
Hays and Kovac decided to make five abstract versions of the dolls, ranging from 4 to 11 feet tall. The dolls, which wouldn’t stack inside each other, would be covered in white mosaic tiles.
First the designers made miniature mock-ups of the dolls to experiment with ways they could be used in the production. Hays and Kovac chuckle when they describe making the small models out of a material used for dental castings and getting their fingers stuck–they feared permanently–in the fast-drying goo.
But they got themselves unglued and found the dolls could be soldiers or women in burqas. They could stand together to look like a skyline of domed Islamic buildings, or spin around a man who is dizzy from too much to drink. One of them could even open so the bottom half could become a steam bath; another would open to create a sarcophagus.
Hays and Kovac named the dolls after the five daughters of a greengrocer in an old Australian comedy show. Kovac says: “The dolls have their own individual personalities.” Hays conjectures, “When the theater goes dark they’re probably running amok and having some real fun.”
Do they threaten to steal the spotlight? “They’ve got tough competition from Mozart,” says Way.
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“The Abduction from the Seraglio,” Wednesday through May 13, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., $17.50-$115; 312-704-8414.
