V i s U a l D e s i g n
A Y E S H A | g R O S V E N O R
Written by Mike Bartlett
Production Director | Doug Cockle
Set Designer |Ayesha Grosvenor
Projection and Lighting Designer | Stephanie Navarro
Costume Designer | Natsuki Mikami
EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON
T H E S Y N O P S I S
T H E D E S I G N C O N C E P T
T H E S E T M O D E L
The script focuses on three sisters and their survival in today’s society of technological advancement and environmental concern.
The themes within the script touch upon environmental issues and how we as a society react to these issues when confronted with them. The effects of developing technology is heavily represented diverting the characters from ever truly interacting with each other and showing how understanding and empathy is lost through such distractions.
The effects of these issues are forced upon one character in particular whom displays serious anxiety and mental health issues that go unnoticed by the other characters.
It is a fast paced and hectic performance with chaotic scenes overlapping and interrupting each other, alongside interjections of surreal scenography. It is a script that makes you question your choices of lifestyle and holds a mirror up to today’s society and the flaws it holds.
It was my aim to create an industrial set to represent how industrial and unnatural London is becoming. To place characters within this type of environment, whilst in the script occupying a living room or park, shows how unnaturally we live now within the industrialised cities and how nothing is of comfort when the natural forms of the environment is stripped away.
The design was inspired by architectural artist Constant Nieuwenhuys, whom constructed a series of models and paintings in order to create a post-revolutionary society named ‘New Babylon.’
New Babylon incorporated the colour palette and structured visuals I had been aiming to create myself. It represents a world in which man has reformed and changed his ways in order to live alongside the environment in peace, whilst with the ability to move freely from one area of leisure to another. This concept related very strongly to the themes found within the script.
The structure made from scaffolding was sectioned into 5 boxes on the upper level for performance areas and two large sections on the ground floor level concealed behind gauze for the use of fading quick cuts of scene into view. This structure allowed for a multitude of scenes to be performed at once. Moveable screens on a track masked scenes, created new environments and worked as a base for projections.
The ground floor was painted to look like stained concrete but could also be interpreted by the audience an abstract representation of the globes tectonic plates. Portable red safety steps were used within the set as a performance platform and a method of access to different sections on the upper levels. The set was positioned as far downstage as possible as a way of being as overbearing as possible to the audience, allowing the spectators to easily get caught up in the chaos of the script and forcing them to recognise the issues the script tries to confront the general public with.
Throughout the process of design I had decided the saturated colour palette of the production would be introduced upon the bleak industrial set through the use of projections and lighting. I collaborated closely with the projection and lighting designer to design the colour palette and effect of each scene alongside designing what projections would be used to enhance the message and actions within the scenes. Projection and Lighting designer Stephanie Navarro went on to develop and realise these initial ideas further using modul8, madmapper and her own filming. The projection and lighting created a vital tranformation of the set bringing in the element of modern technology that plays such an overbearing role in the script.
P R O J E C T I O N A N D L I G H T I N G
Photography by Elisabeth Bratreit and Bill Bradshaw
