Capturing the Castle

Now through June 10, we’re presenting "I Capture the Castle," a springtime romance, at Stoneham Theatre.

Once you decide that you’re going to produce a show with a title like "I Capture the Castle," there’s not much argument over what you’re going to see on stage.

"Very tangibly," said Stoneham Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes, referring to the show which premiered May 24. "The play requires lots of different entrances and exits, a separate bedroom space, a stove, a large sink and many other specific elements."

"I Capture the Castle" is a love story about the two Mortmain sisters falling in love with two brothers (but not necessarily the right one for either of them) but there’s also a bigger story of the decline of the Mortmain family.

"The story of the castle and its state of disrepair really mirrors the Mortmain family and how it is stuck in the past and not really existing in the reality of the present," Symes said. "I really wanted to try to expand the feeling of the play to include some exterior locations like the moat and the ramparts of the castle."

For every production, a team of designers (lighting, set, costume, props, sound, etcetera) is assembled. To design the set, Symes hired Richard Chambers, a faculty member at Suffolk University, who last designed the intricate metalwork for Season 8’s "Antoine Feval."

"Weylin and I initially had a design based more upon the castle with ramparts and multiple levels that would have allowed actors in many places throughout the set at the same time," Chambers said. "But it was huge and complex. We ultimately decided on a set that focused more on the farmhouse and centered the action on family life."

In his preparations for "I Capture the Castle," Chambers looked not only at pictures of castles and farmhouses suggestive of the period but also painting.

"I think the show is very romantic and expressive in it’s style," Chambers explained. “Arches are used throughout the architecture to give a smoother, rounder contrast to all of the angularity and roughness of the lines of the set. Even some of the wooden beams are curved.

"The play of curves and angles underscores both the masculine and feminine conflicts of the play, but also the more natural worlds of art and nature with commerce and logic. The way these shapes interact and unite in the composition makes it not only visually interesting, but are thematically consistent with the world of the play."

Inevitably, financial and physical constraints impact every production budget. For "I Capture the Castle," some of the multiple levels needed to be scaled back.

"There was a great possibility that the set for a castle could have been overwhelming in scale," Chambers said. "While I had the great height of the Stoneham Theatre to work with and really wanted to make use of it with the turret, I kept the ground plan relatively small and pushed down stage to involve the audience in the action. In spite of the 22-foot tower, it feels quite cozy and intimate."

Visit our Facebook page to see the 10 days of installation it took to bring the "I Capture the Castle" set to life.