Minimal furniture
Instead of rebuilding a street, field and wood, the production could move through the repeated locations without stopping the flow.
CompareWould your production keep one neutral platform, or give each location one recurring object?
DNA Professional Production
Use the 2008 National Theatre production as evidence of one interpretation, then make your own choices.
16 Feb 2008
Opening night in the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Theatre.
Paul Miller
Director of the first professional production.
Simon Daw
Designer; Pearson describes minimal furniture with projected locations.
Paule Constable
Lighting designer for the production.
What we can verify
The National Theatre archive identifies the 2008 Cottesloe production as the first production and records 32 performances. Pearson’s set-text guide adds useful staging detail: the production was end-on, used video projection to create locations and kept stage furniture and set items minimal so transitions could move quickly.
Location and passing time
Pearson says video projection helped create the different locations and suggest time passing.
CompareCould projection become surveillance, evidence or atmosphere in a modern concept?
End-on staging
An end-on arrangement gives the designer a clear visual frame and lets projection sit behind the actors.
CompareWhat would you gain or lose by moving the same play into the round?
Production evidence survives
The National Theatre catalogue lists rehearsal and production photographs, costume files, show reports, programmes, discussion recordings and performance video records.
RightsThe archive listing does not give Stark Drama permission to reproduce those photographs. Use the official links instead.
Four questions to steal for revision
- How does a minimal set make the group, rather than scenery, carry the changes of location?
- How could projection make the street, field and wood feel different without becoming decorative wallpaper?
- Which moments need the audience to feel close to the group, and would end-on staging help or hinder that?
- What would you keep from the 2008 production approach, and what would you deliberately change?