5 scared of the set at first, but then they brilliant designs by Leslie Hurry; and the CBE in 1983, and elected to the Royal Soci­ worked on it for a long time and became visit of Brecht 's Berliner Ensemble, led by ety of Arts the foilowing year . very involved with it. Soon they adopted it Helene Weigel, to the Palace Theatre with "Looking back on my career so far, I as their home, and gradually, after about The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother would put Brand quite high on my list of three weeks, it became part of them." Courage and Trumpets and Drums - that favourites, along with the all-male As Yott Metropolis has given Koltai his highest was an amazing experience." Like It and the Back to Methuselah that I ever budget for a show, and he relishes the In 1962, Koltai designed The Caucasian did at the Old Vic in the late 60s, the RSC challenge of working on such a large scale. Chalk Circle for the Royal Shakespeare production of The Representative and The A sense of epic proportion has frequently Company, beginning a long relationship Mahagonny at Sadler's Wells that I did informed his designs, usually dominated with the company which has since taken with the help of Lotte Lenya -- that was a by one striking image - the white moun­ in nearly thirty productions, ranging from real labour of love. tain in Brand at the National, the huge Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter, "Most of my work is symbolic, using sections of female anatomy in Ken quickly establishing himself as an RSC metaphors and modern art, and hence Russell's Die Soldaten at Lyon, a crum­ Associate Designer. For the National quite sophisticated. Metropolis, though, is bling mansion for Troiltts and Cressida at Theatre, his work has included The Wild actually rather different. It's much more the RSC, and the lyrical trees for Terry Duck, Man and Superman and Richard III. accessible, as the audience doesn 't have Hands' Much Ado About Nothing and For the Royal Opera he has designed any problems understanding what it is Cyrano de Bergerac. Taverner and The Icebreak; while at the looking at." Ralph Koltai was born in Berlin to a English National Opera he has worked on Koltai has been a major influence on Hungarian father and a German-Jewish Carmen, Anna Karenina, Pacific Overtures, post-war theatre design. Between 1955 mother, and sent to England shortly before and a magnificent Ring cycle. and 1972 he taught at the Central School, the outbreak of World War II. Joining the By now, Koltai has designed opera, and 70% of British theatre designers aged army, he later served with the British In­ drama, and dance throughout Europe, in between 28 and 45 are ex-students of his, telligence at the Nuremberg Trials, and the United States, and in Australia. He like John Gunther, Maria Bjornson, David subsequently on War Crime Interrogation, won the London Drama Critic's Award for Fielding,John Napier, and Sue Blane. before returning to London to study stage Designer of the Year first in 1967 for Little And while directing might be in design at the Central School of Art and Murders and As Yott Like It, and then Koltai's future, he's the first to admit that Design. again in 1981 for The Love-Girl and the he's far from giving up designing. "People "The first time I was excited in a Innocent. At the Prague Quadriennale have been wondering about that. Direct­ theatre was when Roland Petit and the International Exhibition of Scenography in ing and designing are not exclusive of one Ballet de Champs-Elysees came over to 1975 he was co-winner of the Individual another. In Hong Kong I'll be doing both. the Prince's Theatre ( since renamed the Gold Medal and later co-winner of the Sure, I'd like to concentrate on directing Shaftesbury), with designs by some won­ Golden Troika National A ward in 1979 right now, but, more than anything else, derful French painters. Suddenly, I and the Individual Silver Medal in 1987. I'm looking for a new challenge ." thought, 'Theatre can be really exciting!' He has also won two Designer of the Year "Then there was Tyrone Guthrie's great Awards from the Society of West End production ofTamburlaine The Great Theatres, for Brand in 1978 and Cyrano de with Wolfit at the Old Vic in 1956, with Bergerac in 1984. He was awarded the JULY/AUGUST 1989 33 J .