Decor designer Paul Gallis was a master of the dramatic enlargement

Dramatic enlargement: That is one of the characteristics of the decors of theater designer Paul Gallis. Chairs in his theater image often had excessive high legs and backrests, as in the show Court scenes (1981) Van Karst Woudstra for southern Toneel Globe. Or take The chemical marriage (1982) Van Gerrit Komrij, also for Globe: four men are locked up in a black salon, like a sarcophagus. A beautiful and at the same time oppressive theater image.

Paul Gallis, born in 1943 in Amsterdam, died on Wednesday at the age of 81 in his hometown of Villadeati in the Italian region of Piedmont.

He is one of the leading set designers that is master of the clear line, the sleek shape and the often brilliant overaccentuing. He was involved in about three hundred productions from Opera, Toneel, Ballet and Musical. He also often took care of the costuming.

In Large and small Van Botho Strauss, through the Public Theater (1981), reads the female protagonist Lotte (Petra Laseur) in a book. That was not just a ‘normal’ book, on the contrary, it was a huge book with meter -high pages. Lotte almost drowned in. Another striking example of drama-in-theater image.

First Gallis worked for eight years in an accountancy firm, where he met Grimeur and later director Paul Vermeulen Windsant. Gallis becomes his partner and a regular designer. The duo worked together or separately for companies such as Rotterdams Toneel, Public Theater, Baal, De Appel, the southern Toneel Globe, Toneelgroep Amsterdam (more than twenty years) and International Theater Amsterdam.

Hans Croiset

Gallis worked with the important directors of the eighties and nineties, including Hans Croiset, Gerardjan Rijnders, Peter de Baan, Karst Woudstra, Ger Thijs and Ton Lutz. With Rijnders he was in the artistic direction of Globe; He founded Toneelgroep Amsterdam with him in 1987.

He was not limited to theater. The National Ballet, National Travel Opera and Opera Zuid also appealed to him, as well as musical producers such as Lancelot Dutch Theater Productions, Joop van den Ende Theater Productions and Carré Theater Productions.

Musicals like Foxtrot Cats,, ” Evita and West Side Story Thank the great visual expressiveness to Gallis. His designs can still be seen in musicals worldwide. In 1991 he received the Proscenium Prize, in 2009 the Musical Award for the best decor, Anatevkafrom that year. He was also appointed Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

Gallis first built a model of each decor. During interviews and work discussions, those models always formed the starting point; These are now located as theater heritage in the collection of the Allard Pierson in Amsterdam. Those stage miniatures were real artworks, complete with light, figures, depth effect and costumes. Although he said about his work that he was not limited to one style, the theater visitor recognized a Gallis decor almost immediately.

Deer heads like hunting trophies

Who could otherwise be in the show The hunting company Van Thomas Bernhard (Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 1991) remember that in the otherwise completely empty space the walls were covered with many dozens of deer heads as hunting trophies? All those shot animals looked down on the outdoor company. In Bakelite (Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 1987), one of the first assembly performances by Gerardjan Rijnders, the actresses floated high through the decor, which led to breathtaking scenes.

Are backdrop Dogville (2006) To Lars von Trier by the Ro Theater was a sublime example of his eye for detailing: from the traumatized village where the original film takes place, he had written down the contours with chalk lines on the black play floor, as in a crime film.

This design was a harbinger for later decors, in which he let go of realism and made more abstract, visual constructions. In a conversation with NRC In 1990, following an exhibition about the post-war theater image in the Beurs van Berlage, Gallis said: “Theater is counterfeit. As a decor designer, it is sometimes good to completely ignore the text. Take The human hater Van Molière, what you don’t get for superfluous on the neck when you perform what is in the indication. I designed a large red box, in which candlesticks fell down over time. A decor is not always consciously conceived down to the smallest details, that does not hinder, as long as it works, if the elements together, light, actors, decor, control and dramaturgia, but have an effect on the viewer. ”

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