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Mary Celeste : staging |
© Roland Clare 1993 |
The show uses a fixed set showing Mary Celeste in harbour at Gibraltar in 1872, with a café to one side and a Courtroom to the other. The Gibraltar back-drop sometimes disappears so that the ship seems to be at sea. There must be access to Mary Celeste from below decks, and when the Crew's Ghosts are performing on board the sails must unfurl and move in the wind. A lifeboat can be launched both towards and away from the auditorium. The action alternates broadly between the quayside and the deck of Mary Celeste.
Costume for the Living Characters on the quayside should suggest the Victorian picture-book as far as possible; too much realism will not suit the chiefly modern musical style; only the Ghosts are attired realistically, yet some detail of colour or cut must differentiate them from the others and perpetually remind us of their supernatural status.
The Chorus needs a variety of hand-props by which they can emblematically present themselves as sailing-ship, monster, figure-heads, mermaids, storm and so on.