Cities as Theatres (S01-EP03)
In this third episode we think of cities as the setting or backdrop to drama and events – ideas connected to Berthold Brecht’s development of Epic Theatre in the 1920’s or of Henri Lefebvre’s focus on everyday urban life. Designers of cities have been consciously creating the elements of theatrical urban life through history. Edmond and Corrigan explicitly worked with this theatrical reading of architecture and urbanism, and understood the relationship between architecture and stage design.
Conrad Hamann has talked about how quickly cinema took on the task of depicting cities and treated a city as a main character. We can think of Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov in 1929 and countless other films following. Conrad has talked too about the theatrical elements which have persisted in city design – the composed street; the city logo or icon; campus groupings, and triumphal arches. Each of these as venues for the Instant Theatre of life.
21st century cities are probably seen in google earth by more people that any other place, and even seeing cities from the air for the first time transformed the scale of urban drama. Yet the little theatrical moment of the encounter on a street corner persists. What does a theatrical reading of cities mean for us today?
‘SUP is hosted by Ian Nazareth, Graham Crist and Christine Phillips
Show Notes and References
1. Key Texts & Theoretical Influences
Robin Boyd – The Australian Ugliness
Written while Boyd was overseas, influenced by aerial perspectives and external views of Australia.
Rem Koolhaas – The Generic City (1995)
Cities upgrade themselves like airports—standardised, seamless, and uniform.
Tension between sameness and competitiveness.
Robert Venturi – Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
Critiques modernist simplicity; advocates for richness, contradiction and diversity.
Peter Blake – God's Own Junkyard
On the aesthetic chaos of American consumerism and neon culture.
2. Urban Spectacle & Civic Space
European Urbanism and Opera House Typologies
Arc de Triomphe, Paris – Monumental inspiration for Melbourne's ceremonial arches.
Paris Opera House (Garnier) – Architecture as choreographed experience.
Dresden Opera House (Semper), Frankfurt Opera House, Limburg & Ukraine Opera Houses, and Austrian Pattern Opera Houses – Models of civic-theatrical space.
Public Gathering Grounds
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
Multi-purpose civic arena: cricket, AFL, religious events, military use.
Billy Graham Crusade (1959) – 130,000 attendees at the MCG.
Treasury Gardens – Five Great Arches
Royal Exhibition Building (1879)
World heritage-listed venue of major public events.
Ceremonial Arches in Melbourne
1888 Australian Centennial Arch
1901 Federation Arch
1954 Queen Elizabeth II Arch
3. Aerial Imaginaries & Aviation Architecture
Le Corbusier – Plan Obus (1933, Algiers)
Influenced by Saint-Exupéry’s aerial views.
Reflects fusion of aviation and urban planning.
Maurice Farman Goliath Aircraft
Shared civic ground, centre of movement.
Tin Sheds to Tullamarine – Melbourne’s Aviation Evolution
Berlin Tempelhof Airport
Vast civic building blending movement and monumentality.
Grand Central Terminal, New York
Beaux-Arts monument to transportation.
Burbank Airport, LA
Spanish Mission influences, later modernisation.
4. Architecture as Theatre
The Truman Show (1998)
The city as a constructed, performative space.
Edmund and Corrigan
Theatre in architecture; buildings as stages for cultural life.
Thornton Wilder – Our Town (1938)
Theatrical framing of everyday life in a small American town.
Liubov Popova – The Magnanimous Cuckold (1922)
Constructivist set design extending movement and spatial performance.
Piranesi and Urban Theatre
Vision of cities as dramatic, layered spectacles.
5. Melbourne’s Civic & Cultural Institutions
Hamer Hall & Arts Centre Melbourne
Centrepiece of the city’s cultural life.
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
The arched entrance signifies transition into a cultural space.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Victoria Street (1930s)
Preceded large-scale religious use of the MCG.
Spring Street and Executive Urbanism
Home to Parliament House, Old Treasury Building, and historic institutions.
6. Other Australian and International Precedents
Sydney Opera House
Modernist icon of theatrical urbanism.
Stockholm Town Hall
Civic monument blending with natural setting.