Scenography for the Śląski Theatre – the Design Process Behind "The Kindly Ones"

Jonathan Littell's "The Kindly Ones" is one of the most demanding novels of the 20th century — a narrative told from the perspective of an SS officer, full of the protagonist's inner visions and nightmares. Translating that kind of psyche onto a theatre stage through physical means is hard. The starting point for our production for the Śląski Theatre in Katowice, directed by Maja Kleczewska, was a single question: how do you show something that happens entirely inside a character's head.

From text to visual concept

The theatrical adaptation of "The Kindly Ones" called for a visual layer that wouldn't illustrate the stage action, but instead build a space for the protagonist's inner visions — nightmares, delusions, psychological disintegration. We decided on a stage hologram: a projection that builds a three-dimensional sense of presence within the stage space, rather than a flat image on the backdrop.

An original method for building the spatial effect

We achieved the three-dimensional projection effect using an original method that works with standard stage rigging — without the dedicated, costly holographic infrastructure that's hard to justify for a single theatrical production. The holograms built visual compositions that were direct projections of the protagonist's nightmarish visions, integrated with special effects and scenography so they extended the stage rather than sitting on top of the production as a separate multimedia layer.

The production involved close collaboration across several disciplines: hologram concept, VFX, scenography, and lighting design — all designed together, not sequentially, so that the digital layer and the physical set spoke the same visual language from the outset.

What carries over from this process to other productions

Several design decisions from "The Kindly Ones" apply far more broadly than to this one adaptation:

• A stage hologram built on standard scenography rigging is a genuine alternative to costly dedicated infrastructure — especially for productions with a limited run.
• A visual layer representing a character's inner state (rather than physical action) calls for a different design approach than classical narrative scenography — we discuss that distinction further in our article on immersive theatrical scenography.
• Integrating special effects, projection, and light into a single system requires shared control from the very first technical rehearsal — we describe this principle in more depth in our article on DMX in theatrical scenography.

Full documentation of the production — including production photography by Przemysław Jendroska and the Śląski Theatre — is available on the project page for "The Kindly Ones".

If you're working on an adaptation where a character's inner perspective is the key element rather than just stage action — get in touch with us; we'd be glad to talk through possible visual solutions.