The wave machine

A sea with moving waves was a very popular stage feature. There were several systems to imitate the rolling sea. In his Pratica di Fabricar Scene e Machine ne’Teatri (1638), Sabbattini describes three systems: the first one is a stretched cloth that is moved like a sea by pulling rows that run beneath the cloth. The second method makes use of wooden strips profiled like waves. The strips are placed behind each other and moved up and down by stagehands beneath the stage. However, Sabbattini seems to prefer the third method: A sea is fabricated of cylinders, shaped like a helix. They are painted and preferably ‘coloured blue and black with a touch of silver at the top of each board’ (in Hewitt, 1958, 132). The cylinders are placed behind each other and rotated to imitate the effect of the waving sea.

At Drottningholm, the third system was used. They had five big rollers that were placed at the rear of the stage. Every roll was turned by a stagehand to give the impression of a moving sea. A lot of effects were possible. Sabbattini described methods to create storms, to make ships move and to make appear fish and monsters (it was even possible to have the aquatic creatures spout water while they swam, by an extra stagehand who pressed water out of a tube behind the board image of the creature).

At Drottningholm, they had ships and sea monsters. The ship or monster was a wooden and painted cut-out attached to a line and running on a track. A stagehand pulling the line moved the cut-out between the rollers, so that it looked like a ship was sailing by, or a monster approaching. Sea gods could appear through one of the two stage traps.