Romeo and Juliet
For this production, the primary considerations were a degree of realism in the general setting, and how to make the iconic balcony scene, particularly impactful.
This adaptation was set in Brighton in the 1960’s, featuring the historical conflicts between the factions of Mods and Rockers. The director envisioned many of the scenes playing out on Brighton beach - something of a challenge on the second floor of a building in central London.
Setting:
On a limited budget, I presented the director with options for a ‘beach’ that maximised texture while using as few real pebbles as possible.
I landed on a matrix of rough hemp fabric, laid out to create creases where pebbles could be constrained. The fabric was spatter-painted in a limited palette of colours, precisely scan-matched to the colour range of the pebbles available and the unique material of Brighton beach itself.
The director’s vision tended toward realism, so I brought in other visual signifiers of beaches which to “contextualise” the pebble/texture plane. This was achieved with a element of a buried timber ‘groyne’ along the front of the stage creating extra levels and depths, ‘sea-reflection’ projections. These added subtle but constant movement to the total scene, keeping it ‘alive’ throughout.
You can’t easily move 200kg of pebbles so the beach would have to remain throughout the show. I decided to embrace this, designing the set to remain for the whole performance, with no furniture moving scene changes and using lighting to change emphasis on elements throughout the narrative. This would mean that we could maintain the pace of the show as we built to the violent and emotional climax.
The Balcony:
The Balcony scene puts Juliet on the high platform that was a key feature of the Elizabethan stage. Our stage and wings are limited in size and the director’s desire to work with a proscenium meant that the platform would need to go to the back of the stage, causing sightline issues from the raked auditorium.
Moving the platform to the front would severely reduce space for the performers so I took the unusual decision to restore an old ‘revolve’ that had lain disused since it was originally built for a pantomime.
The Final Design:
The revolve, and the layered effect created by groynes opened new design opportunities on our small stage. The final design included a number of levels, building up to the main stage and the revolve. This was in part inspired by Brighton’s Regency seafront, with Undercliff and Overcliff levels and, balconied houses and Roccoco colonades
This segmentation, provided a range of flexible acting spaces for settings which only appear once or twice, and more defined acting spaces for settings which require continuity throughout the show. It was pleasing to realise that, in designing for a space-limited modern theatre, I’d encountered many of the same issues Elizabethan directors would have, and had eventually solved them in some similar ways.
The total effect of the design was a versatile space for performance, meeting the aesthetic requirements for realism, reflecting the architectural and scenic language of Brighton and the beach itself.