Stage proposal for Harold Pinter´s 'Night'

We already did the exercise of doing a stage proposal in class, and while my group and I came with the idea of a living room really crowded with familiar elements to make a contrast between the cold situation that the couple has in the play and their home, a more warm space, I always preferred to explore the other way round, that means, creating a colder atmosphere.

To represent this play I would opt for a void stage with only a table, two chairs for each of the actors and a lamp. Looking for a picture on Google that was close to my proposal I came across this one, which was really similar to my idea except for what you can see behind the table. It would basically consist on a square table on center stage (CS) with the two chairs each of them at the extremes of the table so both actors would be facing the audience. There would be also a lamp near the table, placed on upstage left (USL) and it would be the only source of lighting in the whole stage.

The choice of a square table is mainly because a round table has the connotation of fraternity and a close relationship between those who are sitting around it, so I wanted to opposite of this as the protagonist couple have grown apart over the years. The actors would sit on it not looking at each other directly, only when they are speaking, marking once again that they are not close as a couple. The light coming for the lamp, leaving the rest of the stage in the dark, also emphatises the coldness between them and creates the somber atmosphere that I was looking for.

When I read 'Night' this was the portrayal that came into my mind and I think it is really appropiate for this play.

Stage proposal for Willy Russell's 'Educating Rita'

After watching the film version of 'Educating Rita' and having seen more scenes that were not included in the original theatrical version of the play, makes you think about the posibilities of introducing some of those scenes in the play.

As we have seen, all scenes in the play take place at Frank's office and we only know about what happens outside that room because characters talk about it. It would be really interesting to portray some of those scenes, in particular, the one where Denny finds Rita's pills and burns her books, the pub scene, the scene where Rita goes to Frank's house to have dinner and decides not to enter and Frank's scene with his students when he was drunk. I know all these would be difficult to play in stage with all those decorating changes in the stage but for instance, the scene where Rita is invited to Frank's house to dinner would be easy to portray, with a dark stage with only the light of a window placed on Upstage Center (USC) where the audience could see people inside the house while Rita is outside, hearing music coming out of it and laughs, in a street with only the light of a street lamp located on Upstage Left (USL), while Rita would be standing holding a bottle of wine and looking directly to the window on Downstage Right (DSR) putting more emphasis on what the audience can see through that window and seeing Rita's reaction. As everything else in the stage is dark then it could be made into a scene as it does not convey great changes in the stage.

The only image I could find in Google that was close to my proposal was more or less this still of 'The Exorcist':

The other scenes I mentioned are more complicated as it needs a complete change of all the scenario but I think the one I proposed would be easy to make and it won't included more actors, just a few extras that would appear in that short scene in the window, which again, makes everything easier when it comes to play this scene.