Odd things occasionally show up at the theatre for use in a show. This past week’s fun oddity is approximately 14 tons of recycled concrete, donated by board member Len Suzio, and another five tons of clamshells have arrived for use on the set of Long Wharf Theatre’s upcoming production of The Train Driver.
The play takes place in a desolate graveyard in South Africa, one where the plots are marked with junk rather than tombstones. The script calls for a desolate place. However, dirt doesn’t behave well in a theatre, finding itself in places where it isn’t supposed to be. Ground up cork, usually used as a dirt stand-in, doesn’t really have the right feel, so set designer Eugene Lee had to come up with something different.
Lee is known for his strict adherence to realism, but in this instance he’s decided to take a different path with The Train Driver set. This particular set will have more of the feel of an art installation than a practical graveyard – indeed, Lee has said that the set should resemble bleached bone – a bone yard.
Hence, the clamshells. Lee is a Rhode Islander and an avid boater. In Rhode Island, driveways and marinas are often paved with clamshells, a tradition that still holds true locally in Fair Haven. The theatre’s intrepid set and prop shop initially sampled some of the shells using shovels and buckets, and then used a bucket loader and full size dump truck to save endless man hours and labor. They then have spent the past several days cleaning the clamshells for use on stage.
So a concoction of sand and clamshells will create the desolate space where actors Harry Groener and Anthony Chisholm will work in this searing new drama.
Jackie Farrelly, head of the prop shop, promises that more interesting stuff will arrive at the theatre this week.