INDUSTRY ICONS
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The set of Het Hamiltoncomplex includes Greek columns, a plastic horse and a rainbow of teddy bears
collaborations later on, for those moments where I got frustrated with theatre and wanted to keep mining for deeper, conceptual thinking – bringing that back over into my stage work. I’m always trying to broaden the edges of what I do, or finding other ways of collaboration such as installation, as it brings more depth to what I’m creating. What are some of your favourite projects, and why are they so special to you? I co-directed and designed a play at the National Theatre called The Antipodes , and that was a completely surprising way of working where I collaborated with the writer of the show itself. That was a real favourite because it blew my mind in terms of being able to take on more of the creation of a show. I worked a few times with a Belgian director, Lies Pauwels, who influenced my work and made me feel I could be myself. We made four shows together, including Het Hamiltoncomplex , and they were hugely important to me in terms of how I developed my aesthetic and thinking. That’s because their process was instinctive, less focused on a set text or delivering a play, and more like a devised work where we formulated an environment together based on our conversations. It felt more like an artistic framework, where the interplay between people and objects created this kind of spatial collage – giving way to strange and unusual environments. There was also Phaedra at the National Theatre, which I absolutely loved working on. We put five different sets into a 9x9m
Gundog is part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme
rotating glass box, meaning its contents changed completely with each scene. Each show must be so different in terms of process. Do you have a rough framework you go by? In terms of my studio work, I tend to start with an information-gathering phase, putting together images and generating mood boards in a document I can then share with the director to talk through. I’ve collaborated with some amazing associates in the studio, and we work digitally. We tend to work a lot in Rhino, modelling up white card maquettes in 3D formats. Then we take different views of the theatre space, after which I’d go away and Photoshop them into it. I like to work with those digital white mass models a lot, passing them back and
It felt more like this artistic framework – the interplay between people and objects created a kind of spatial collage”
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