Play by Beth Flintoff, Directed by Luke Kernaghan, By arrangement with Nick Hern Books
This was my first attempt to create set designs. The Ballad of Maria Marten is a very passionate and relevant play that talks about power of sisterhood and gives voice to the victim who was not only robbed from living a whole life, but the chance to advocate for herself. These designs were my major project during my first term, after starting my studies in the 3rd year at the Arts University Bournemouth. I submitted two different maquettes to offer some variety to the director.
These are theoretical designs, my final role in this play was the supervision of the props.
The first design resonates more with the more abstract ideas of the director, depicting a world that is hazy, slowly falling apart and that is in the proccess of decay just as Maria's body buried under the red barn. The mirror covered blocks are carefully positioned so they don't hide details from the members of the audience, regardless of the position of their seating. Each block represents a location in the play, and the damaged wooden slat walls represent the place of the murder while Maria tells her story to the audience as a ghost. Two of these panels are moved into the center of the stage to represent the exterior of the barn while Maria's friends set the structure on fire. The visuals are further elevated with projection design at the back.
The second design is highly influenced my favourite designer, Eiko Ishioka's work (M. Butterfly, 1988, Broadway). This, more monumental staircase offers a multitude of entry points for the actors while the back wall is projected with images and slow moving videos, and the finale also comes with the animation of large campfire that builds up from the ground. The staircase connects the apron and the stage, and gives a variety of points for 'ghost' Maria to be the part of the play while retains her distance from the living characters of her life.