Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre showcasing the shortlisted designers for the Linbury Award award. Drawn from recent graduates of theatre design course, 20 are chosen by a panel to present their work to one of the four commissioning theatres who each chose three to work with. Each designer was then asked to produce a design for one of their forthcoming productions. The prize is then to see their design realised. It’s fascinating to see three designs for the same show and see the effect of a different set and costumes. Each design was represented by set models, sketchbooks and textiles.   I loved Zoe Hurwtiz’s design for a play called Acid at the Nuffield Southampton Theatre which consisted of a glass box with dancers inside, figures outside and a loan figure on a chair behind the box. Different lighting highlighted the different aspects of the set. I would love to see this in action. I also liked the winner Sami Fendall’s design for a ballet set ...

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre looking at how scale models are used for set design. It showed how models had been used in theatre since Ancient Greece and how the standard scale is now 1:25 as it is difficult to incorporate detail in anything smaller. I loved a big display of pencils of different sizes to illustrate what scale means. It then went on to look at six productions in the Olivier starting with the 1977 production of “The Plough and the Stars” to show how scale models had been used in practice. It featured a lot of work by Jocelyn Herbert and included a recreation of her studio with an interview with her from the archive playing on a telephone. Each show featured the scale model used and archive material to describe the design process. It was nice to see show’s I’d seen features such as the recent “Anthony and Cleopatra” and the “Comedy of Errors” from 2011.   The display also discussed how the models are used from being in the room dur...

Dull exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the set designs of William Dudley who has worked with the theatre at the Old and New Vic plus on all three stages in the current theatre. Dudley has designed the exhibition himself and it looks stunning as a piece of interior design for a foyer but just consists of photos and sketches. It is quite muddling to work out which show is being shown and the sections running into each other and overlap. The booklet which goes with it helps the narrative but I would have liked to see a bit more commentary on the pictures plus maybe some objects or models to break up the display. It did however remind me of some of the wonderful productions I’d seen that he theatre such as “The Mysteries” and “Lark Rise to Candleford” in the Cottesloe and “The Real Inspector Hound and The Critic”. It also showed me shows which I can’t belief I missed such as “The Coast of Utopia” which looked visually stunning. No closing date given