Page 13 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41
P. 13
The Circle was built as a stadium Even after the three columns were
design with a high-stepped lounge. reduced to two for the installation of
Entry to the lounge seating was from a CinemaScope, the effect remained. The
staircase to the left of an L-shaped wall patterns stopped well short of the
foyer that emphasized, not surprisingly, stage, thus avoiding a clash between
curves and circles. competing shapes. As Building noted
If the exterior and foyer were ‘…the proscenium has been designed
nothing unusual, imagination took wing so that with lighting from the sides, it is
beyond. The semi-circle motif like an island at the end of the
continued along the walls of the auditorium.’
auditorium as patterns in plaster relief, Cowper, Murphy and Appleford
their contours inviting the eye to look would not devise such a bold setting
upward to a ceiling of overlapping again. For example, with the Time
curves, an effect like a silk lining for a Balwyn (CR60) an otherwise stylish
marquee. The swirls seemed to design was marred by ‘soft-option’
disappear behind a protruding parapet - frills around the proscenium. Not that
the top of the proscenium. the Circle was free from questionable
The stage of the Circle was a decisions. The ceiling deserved
reworking of an old idea - classic concealed lighting, rather than the
columns to frame the proscenium - pendants that interrupted a detailed
except that these exaggerated forms surface.
were not the usual models from
antiquity. The illusion of massive
strength - Ross Thorne has called them
‘strapped bundles of logs’ - conveyed Left: Could the inspiration for the columns
stability and restfulness, ideal for a have been the Roman fasces, an axe tied
cinema. within a bundle of rods, symbol of
authority?
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