Ever wondered how we do it? Here’s a look back at some of our most spectacular production elements and a behind-the-scenes insight into how they were designed and made…
Great Expectations – Fire and Water
Designed by Barney George
The demanding set design for the Dickensian classic featured the use of real fire and water. The marshes and the Thames were created with small pools and even a 3ft deep water tank on stage. Miss Havisham’s fiery demise was represented through the use a giant chandelier that exploded into flames!
TWO – On-Stage Bar & Experience Seats
Designed by Ali Allen
For Jim Cartwright’s TWO a full pub set was created on-stage – with a working bar audience members could order drinks from during the interval. You could even book experience seats to sit up close to the action and order a pre-theatre meal before the show! Through our partnership with Dancing Duck Brewery, we were able to serve our own beverage – Dramatic Duck pale ale.
Sweeney Todd – The Barber’s Chair and Revolving Stage
Designed by Sara Perks
Co-produced with Mercury Theatre Colchester
Extract from the Programme: Sara said – “Our first discussions of the design included the use of a revolve. I was delighted to discover that Derby Theatre do indeed have their own revolve – and it’s a 10m ‘double revolve’ – so it has a centre and an outer ring that can operate independently from one another. It offers an amazing amount of flexibility for us – and we can create incredible, beautiful, almost filmic sequences with it.
It was at this point that the process accelerated rapidly. I wanted to create some really interesting layers, levels and architectural shapes that conjure up the dark and gloomy corners of mid-Victorian London – the soot and grime covered bricks, the rotting woodwork of the East End rookeries, and the poverty and fight to earn even a meagre living. And that’s on top of wanting to honour all the technical challenges the piece throws up – after all (spoiler alert) – at least three people have their throats slit and fall down a trap from a collapsing barber’s chair!”
Peter Plan – Flying
Designed by Neil Irish
Flying Equipment provided by Kirby’s AFX Ltd
No production of Peter Pan would be complete without some form of flying. From ziplines to harnesses, we incorporated flying into our version of J.M Barrie’s timeless tale of never growing up!
One Man, Two Guvnors – The Skiffle Band
Designed by Neil Irish
Musical Director: Kelvin Towse, Band: Dominic Gee-Burch, Tomas Wolstenholme, Jay Osborne and Oraine Johnson
Co-produced with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
Extract from the Programme: Director Sarah Brigham said – “The play is set in Brighton in 1963. We wanted to create the style and atmosphere of ‘end-of-the-pier’ variety shows, which were hugely popular in British seaside resorts in the 1950s and 1960s, and Neil Irish’s brilliant design sets the whole show as if it’s in an old music hall. Footlights and festoons frame the stage and a small band pit and bridge recreates the layout of small seaside theatres.
Like those old variety shows, we also have short interludes and the skiffle band are the main act throughout the show. They are incredible musicians. The characters also join them in various variety acts reminiscent of the time.”
Betrayal – The Memory Box
Designed by Neil Irish
Extract from the Programme: Neil said “We wanted to show the reverse chronology physically, and we wanted the acting space to move and indicate a reverse in time. The space needed not to be naturalistic, but a memory box where the actors and their memories are trapped: the detritus of the nine years piled up, props and clothes to be used as the scenes unfold, layers of time like layers of decaying leaves in a wood.
The space gradually clears as we get towards the start of the story, when everything is clear and pure. We pursued this more expressionistic approach and found it more theatrically interesting than a more conventional naturalistic setting.”