Richard Burton Company: Spring Season

8 February 2019

Filed Under:

Acting
Production and Design

The Richard Burton Company Spring Season:

Three women, three stories, three plays: Machinal, Thérèse Raquin and What We Know. 

The white set for Machinal conveys a clinical, almost panic room environment, to reflect the central characters mental turmoil, explained stage manager Lily Davies.

Cara Hood is the lighting designer working on this production with director Sean Linnen, set designer Jack Valentine and costume designer Yiwen Lin.

“A white set can initially be daunting as a lighting designer, because it bounces light like crazy and can easily look flooded and swamped, making dark, intimate scenes difficult to create,” said Cara.

“However, creatively, a white set is like a plain canvas.

It offers a wonderful opportunity to cover the set with saturated colours which in turn can be very effective in creating alternative locations and moods; using a deep blue across the set to create a dark space, coupled with the contrasting orange glow of tungsten to create pockets of light, those desired intimate spaces can be created.

A large, stark white set compliments the idea of lunacy within the play, and with just a hint of green it can easily look clinical and uncomfortable, which  I feel that this suits our production of Machinal very well.”

Thérèse Raquin, photography Simon Gough

 

What We Know, Photography Kirsten McTernan

Absolutely love working at @RWCMD – inspirational cast and creatives, as always. Wait till these brilliant third years actors hit the industry…!! BAM! Big love to @patriciamlogue and @SeanLinnen's shows too! #whatweknow #richardburtoncompany https://t.co/LZfNj9Hvth

— Debbie Hannan (@debbiehannan) February 8, 2019

The productions are on at the College until February 12th.

The feature image shows Ruby Hartley as ‘young woman’ with Jack Valentine, set designer, Lily Davies, stage manager and costume designer Yiwen Lin. Credit: Kirsten McTernan