Barrier(s) is a powerful and intimate love story that ultimately dissects itself and becomes a joyfully iconoclastic critique of deaf representation on stage. I designed a claustrophobic set for it, with two screens enclosing the action like the titular barriers, enabling rapid location changes through projected hand-drawn backgrounds that shift between different times of day or night, or provide different angles on the same rooms. Interludes were accompanied by animations – again all hand-drawn. There were also hand-drawn animations for the interludes and montage sequences.
Deafinitely is deaf-led, and this show was mainly in BSL, but their work is always accessible to hearing audiences, so captions were also integrated into the projections, sometimes very simply and sometimes as text messages.
Barrier(s) opened at Birmingham Rep, and then toured to Home in Manchester and Camden People’s Theatre, London. There’s more about it here on the Deafinitely website.
I thought it might be nice to share some of my drawings for the projections, along with Becky Bailey’s production photos, but first, here are the credits:
Writer: Eloise Pennycott Director: Paula Garfield Associate Director: Lynn Stewart-Taylor Dramaturg: Rio Matchett Set, Costume & Video Designer: Paul Burgess Lighting Designer: Tom Mulliner Sound Designer: Marie Zschommler Assistant Costume Designer: Sophie Barnard AV Programmer: Jasper Mattel Cast: Em Prendergast and Zoë McWhinney Photographer: Becky Bailey
First off, here’s the artwork for three locations: Alana’s living room (day and night), a street and a bar. They were created with enough width to show the room from different angles. Windows were transparent so I could put different skies behind them. The figures in the bar were also on a separate layout so they could be faded out, enhancing the intimacy and intensity of the two characters’ date.
And now, some of Becky’s excellent photos. I hope this play gets a lot more life. It’s got some great observational writing, but it’s also kind of meta and pretty punk too. But I’m being careful to avoid spoilers.
I designed this show a few years ago and posted briefly about it at the time, chiefly to flag up a blog post I wrote about it for the National Theatre Wales Community Blog. But I just realised I never put the production photos up on the website. I’ll add a couple to my portfolio page, but here’s the complete set.
It was a great project, not just because of the lovely final show but also because the process was so open and democratic, and we really got to experiment. I really pushed myself as a result, and I think that showed, particularly in the video design.
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies, by We Made This at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
Performers: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Director: Matt Ball, Designer (incl video and animation): Paul Burgess, Lighting: Connor Lovejoy (R&D Lighting/co-devising: Cis O’Boyle), Sound: Sam Jones
Light Waves Dark Skies at Chapter Arts, Cardiff.
A We Made This Production, co-produced by Pontardawe Arts Centre
We Made This: Matt Ball, Katie Bingham, Paul Burgess, Catherine Dyson, Jacqui George, Gwawr Loader, Connor Lovejoy, Cis O’Boyle, Nia Skyrme & Morgan Thomas
Performers/ Perfformwyr: Catherine Dyson, Gwawr Loader & Morgan Thomas
Stage & Production Manager/ Rheolwr Llwyfan a Chynhyrchu: Jacqui George
You only have till the middle of March to catch Staging Places at the V&A. Curated by Fiona Watt and designed by Andreas Skourtis, it’s a great exhibition that not only reflects design for performance by practitioners active in the UK over the last four years, but also delves into and attempts to demystify the design process. In the same open and exploratory spirit, the exhibition design incorporates a round table, at which we’re hosting events and discussions. Follow The Society of British Theatre Designers on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to keep up-to-date. Or better still, join!
Panos Andrianos has made a teaser video for the exhibition, with sound by design by Romanos Papazotos:
I wrote a piece for the National Theatre Wales Community Blog about my work for Light Waves Dark Skies by We Made This. There’s a one-off performance at Pontardawe Arts Centre, tonight. PAC was also a partner in making the project. Then next week we’re at Chapter Arts Cardiff.
It’s a lovely show (I’m biased, but I think I’m right about this!), about the sea, star-gazing and dealing with loss. The blog’s about my design process. Here’s a link: Continue reading Light Waves Dark Skies
Paul Burgess 