melody-garnet:southerncalcosette:Erica Stephan is Cosette and Devin DeSantis is Marius in “Les Miser
melody-garnet:southerncalcosette:Erica Stephan is Cosette and Devin DeSantis is Marius in “Les Miserables” at the Paramount Theatre.OK BUT THE STAGE DESIGN THO??? THAT’S A PANOPTICON IM FHZSXSREWVokay so the panopticon was this idea of a circular prison that allows for permanent surveillance of the prisoner. while this one guardian can see all, he himself is not visible. he might as well be absent, because the prisoners don’t know, so te prisoners could at any time be surveilled. the prisoners internaize this monitoring social control to the extent that they maintain the discipline of the system themselves.now this idea is very powerful, because it perpetuates itself in the mind. ‘i might be watched right now, I better behave”. It’s very present in christianity (remember all those GOD IS WATCHING plaques your grandma would hang on the wall). that is essentially what happened in french society of les miserables. not only does the story start with “Look Down”, the prisoners of society asking the guardians of the status quo to see their misery (and, in asking for these guardians for action instead of fighting for change themselves they are perpetuating this societal setup), they’re asking god. the very same god who supposedly supported the disastrus monarchy in the first place. and then the beginning song zooms in onto an actual prison with exactly the same panopticon construction, javert looking down on valjean. everything is a prison society and the staging reflects that. the law locks poor people up indiscriminately. so does the steel plated, foggy, steamy, tight, locked in, eighteenth century manufactures that fantine is forced to labour in. even the love scene between cosette and marius is set behind bars and steel walls. only in the church scene do we spot softness, naturality: the wooden bench and pillow of the praying bench. and yet they’re supplicating the same ‘god on high’ that established the panopticon in the first place, so even here, the background is as gloomy as ever.who designed this stage i want to hug them -- source link