ABSTRACT
The uncertainties about the scope of scenography register persisting uncertainty about its nature that have long been complicated by the unclear relationship between scenography and play scripts, and that complexity is grounded in centuries-old debate about the relationship between, and relative priority of, the visual and the verbal in the theatre. This relationship has become even more critical at a time when many involved in theatre and theatre studies conceive of a "scenographic turn", one that echoes the "linguistic turn" taken by many modes of inquiry in the twentieth century. The widespread linguistic turn toward underlying order so conceived has led only to the twin dilemmas of structuralism and post-structuralism, exemplifying not the error of a linguistic turn but the error of taking the wrong linguistic turn when another was available. To the extent that theatre activities and theatre studies are exploring an analogous scenographic turn, it is important that the cautionary tale of this linguistic turn be widely recognized.
