Ralph Koltai: Designer, Scenographer, Sculptor

1. RALPH KOLTAI:
DESIGNER, SCENOGRAPHER, & SCULPTOR
Cam M. Roberts

3. “Whatever talent I may have,
it lies in recognizing the accident
when it happens.”

4. “The play isn’t about a door,
it is about somebody coming on stage.”

5. Ralph Koltai
Ralph Koltai
stage design workshop under the stage
designer Ralph Koltai.

6. Biographic Note
Ralph Koltai:
born Berlin 1924; came to England 1939;
served in British Army after the war;
Central School student 1948-51, then Head
of Theatre Design 1965-72; Associate
Designer with RSC 1963-5 and again from
1976 to the present. Lives in London. He is
the recipient of many awards, including the
CBE in 1983, and the subject of several
retrospective exhibitions.

8. As You Like It
“The Forest of Arden is real to those who dream it.”
The Old Vic
1967
p. 16 – 21

9. As You Like It
1967
Set Model
Perspex, acetate, paint, plastic, and wood.

12. Back to Methuselah
The Old Vic
1968/1969
“A cosmic prologue,
transformation into the Garden of Eden
and the Tree of Knowledge.”
p. 100 – 101

13. The Tempest
Chichester Theatre Festival
1968/1978
“And island of the mind.”
p. 63

14. The Tempest
Costume Design
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
David Suchet as Caliban,
Richard Griffiths as Trinculo
Paul Moriarty as Stephano
1978

15. The Ring Cycle
Barbican Theatre
1970/1974
“A world in cosmic space. Coincide with the first Apollo landing on the moon.”
p. 42 – 45

16. The Ring Cycle

17. The Ring Cycle

18. Oedipus Tyrannus
Chichester Theatre Festival
1974
“I want a sexual landscape.” Hovhannes I Pilikian (Director)
p. 65

19. Baal
1979
p. 28 – 31

20. Much Ado About Nothing
1982
“The mirrored floor and walls reflecting the narcissistic nature of the characters.”
p. 38 – 39

21. Much Ado About Nothing

22. Die Soldaten (The Soldiers)
Lyon
1983
“I need four acting areas.” Ken Russell (Director)
p. 54 – 57

23. Die Soldaten (The Soldiers)

24. Cyrano De Bergerac
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
1983/1984
Model
“Act V – A Convent Garden. The autumn of Cyrano’s life:
the crown of a tree shedding its leaves, hinting at stained glass, a rose window…”
p. 58 – 61

25. Troilus and Cressida
Royal Shakespeare Company
1985
“[…] Koltai's beautiful baroque ruin – grey speckled like a grotesque vulture's egg
and hung with rotting canvasses and… spectral drapes… serves as a war room
and battleground […]." Ros Asquith, Observer

26. Troilus and Cressida

27. Troilus and Cressida

28. Troilus and Cressida

29. Tannhäuser
Venusberg projection
Geneva Opera
1986
p. 86 – 89

30. The Planets
“Saturn”
Model photograph
The Royal Ballet, London
1990
p. 22 – 25

31. The Planets
“Jupiter”
Model photograph
The Royal Ballet, London
1990

32. Tales of Hoffman
US Touring Production
1994

33. Madame Butterfly
Tokyo
1995
“An idealized vision of Japan through American (Pinkerton’s) eyes.”
p. 33 – 35

34. Suddenly, Last Summer
Nottingham
1998

35. Macbeth
Copenhagen
1998
“Variations on a theme.
A landscape – a metaphor for the dominance of Lady Macbeth.”
p. 122 – 123

36. Genoveva
2000
“Genoveva’s vision of freedom
on release from wrongful imprisonment.”
p. 124 – 125

37. The Romans in Britain
Sheffield
2006

38. Sculptures

78. Bibliography
Backemeyer, Sylvia, ed. Ralph Koltai: Designer for the Stage, 3rd ed. London:
Nick Hearn Books, 2003. Print.
Backemeyer, Sylvia, ed. Ralph Koltai: Designer for the Stage, 1st ed. London:
Nick Hearn Books, 1997. Print.
Brockett, Oscar G., Margaret Mitchell, and Linda Hardberger. Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design
and Technology in Europe and the United States. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. Print.
Davis, Tony. Stage Design. East Sussex:
RotoVision, 2001. Print.
McKinney, J. and Butterworth, P. (2009) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press

79. Bibliography
http://ralphkoltai.com/
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O154966/set-model/
http://www.ahds.rhul.ac.uk/ahdscollections/docroot/shakespeare/performancedetails.do?performanceId=12019
http://www.ahds.rhul.ac.uk/ahdscollections/docroot/shakespeare/performancedetails.do?performanceId=12019
Interview – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00942z7
Interview – http://www.theatrevoice.com/listen_now/player/?audioID=211
http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/designers/koltai/
http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/interviews/RalphKoltai.htm
http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/ralph-koltai-designer-for-the-tempest
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/60088/exhibitions/ralph-koltai-stage-2-metal-collage-2002-2010.html
http://www.tpcworld.com/news/item/169
http://sceno.org/theatre-design-101/theatre-designers-ralph-koltai/
http://www.filmreference.com/film/89/Ralph-Koltai.html
http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781854597847/Ralph-Koltai
http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781854597847/Ralph-Koltai?b=-3&t=-26#Bibliographicdata-26
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=9781854597847
http://www.westendtheatre.com/tag/ralph-koltai/
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=25036
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0464416/

80. Bibliography
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29096496@N04/5142602139/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29096496@N04/sets/72157625304467676/with/5142604101/
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ralph+koltai
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/ralph-koltai-id-1854597841.aspx
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/11/13/the-art-of-ralph-koltai/
http://www.isbnlib.com/author/Ralph_Koltai
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/64202-popup.html
http://www.noiseofart.org/2010/03/29/launch-of-kindertransport-bfi-southbank-15-25-april-2010benosborne/
http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Ralph_Koltai
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/koltai_ralph/artist/101149/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/collaborators/index.html
http://www.oistat.org/content.asp?path=rrnwbv2e
http://hollietheedamillustrator.wordpress.com/category/animation/