This paper examines how scenography contributes to the production of movement in performance, arguing that stage space is not only a system to be decoded as representation, but a relational field in which action becomes possible. It asks how spatial and material configurations generate, transform, and constrain embodied movement, framing performance as an ongoing negotiation with the affordances of space. The concept of "scenographic affordances" is introduced to articulate this dynamic relationship between body and environment.
Drawing on James J. Gibson's ecological theory of perception, affordances are understood as relational possibilities for action emerging between environmental properties and bodily capacities. This is complemented by Juhani Pallasmaa's phenomenology of embodied perception, which foregrounds tactile and kinaesthetic engagement over purely visual interpretation. Together, these perspectives reposition scenography as an active spatial condition rather than a representational backdrop.
The paper is grounded in a case study of the 2017 production of Witkacy's The Madman and the Nun (dir. Daniel Irizarry) at International Festival of Wandering Theatres in Poland, using design archives and video documentation. It examines performer interaction with an abstracted set of domestic objects, door, window, bed, chair, and table, arranged within a constrained, cross-shaped stage architecture.
A key focus is the tension between initial symbolic design intentions and emergent spatial logics in performance. Objects such as the bed shift from representational signs of confinement into dynamic agents of action, functioning as barriers, supports, and surfaces for suspension. Material properties such as weight, angle, and instability emerge as generative conditions that shape movement choices. The paper proposes "designing for the verb" as a framework for understanding scenography as a system of possibilities, suggesting that meaning arises through embodied interaction and the activation of space in performance.