Anna Karenina | Digital Programme

PROGRAMME

WELCOME

Welcome to Bristol Old Vic, and to Anna Karenina, our co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.

Simply put, we fell in love with Lesley Hart’s script on first reading. Full of heart and soul, Lesley, together with director Polina Kalinina, has taken the spirit of Tolstoy’s masterpiece, which was so anti-establishment in its day, and let it free with a new, earthy vigour, seen through the female lens.

By brilliantly reframing the story, Polina and Lesley hold a mirror up to contemporary society where the continued condemnation of women, particularly those who don’t conform to perceived cultural norms, continues.

If you’re new to the story, or familiar with it, we’re sure that you’ll be enthralled by this powerful retelling.

And if this production makes your heart race just that little bit faster, we hope our season of work this autumn will have even more to tempt you back as we shine a light

on the stories and people who make this theatre a place of discovery, understanding and joy.

Each of our autumn shows is about the power in belonging, as characters search for meaning and purpose – whether that is Kathy and Stella who have few opportunities in life, but make something special together; or Choir Boy’s young black boys discovering how to be men in a world that creates more barriers than opportunities, with Pharus leading the way in how to be your authentic self; or Starter for Ten’s Brian – who is working out if where he comes from is good enough.

It’s a joyous season full of music, stories and belonging – which is our open invitation to you too. I hope we can welcome you back very soon.

Thank you for coming to Bristol Old Vic today. Your support of live theatre means a great deal us.

Nancy Medina Artistic Director

Charlotte Geeves Artistic Director

Photography: Barbara Evripidou

CAST

ROBERT AKODOTO VRONSKY / VESLOVSKY

LINDSEY CAMPBELL ANNA KARENINA

TALLULAH GREIVE KITTY / FROU FROU / AMBASSADORS WIFE

JAMIE MARIE LEARY DOLLY / BETSY

STEPHEN MCCOLE KARENIN / ANDREI (MAITRE’D)

ANGUS MILLER STIVA

RAY SESAY LEVIN MYAGKAYA / COMMENTATOR / STATION MASTER

YOUNG COMPANY

LOUIS FOX, ALESSANDRO MALAVOLTI, HENRY ORCHARD SERYOZHA

CREATIVE TEAM

WRITER LESLEY HART, AFTER LEO TOLSTOY

DIRECTOR POLINA KALININA

DESIGNER EMMA BAILEY

CASTING DIRECTORS SIMONE PEREIRA HIND & ANNA DAWSON

LIGHTING DESIGNER MARK HENDERSON

COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER XANA

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR VICKI MANDERSON

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR DEBI PIRIE

INTIMACY DIRECTOR ADELAIDE WALDROP

COMPANY STAGE MANAGER KATY STEELE

DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER CLAIRE WILLIAMSON

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER FRANCESCA FENECH

COSTUME SUPERVISOR SOPHIE FERGUSON

PRODUCER DAVID DEY

COSTUME MAKERS SHIRLEY ROBINSON, RUTH BAILEY, SUZANNE TOGNERI & LUCY CARR-LOCKE

BRISTOL ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR HOPE THAIN

YOUNG ACTOR REHEARSAL ASSISTANT LOTTIE ELCOATE

RELIGHTER MIKE GUNNING

DRESSERS MILLIE BUCKINGHAM, ZENA JONES, MANUELA FLEMING & LUCY HOWARTH

LIGHTING OPERATORS JAMES HARRISON, NATALIA CHAN, GEORGE BRYANT & MIKE

SOUND NUMBER 1 BEN THOMAS

SOUND NUMBER 2 FINN MACNEIL & DAN BLAKER

SOUND OPERATORS EMILY SMITH, NATALIA CHAN & EMMA GONZALES

FLYS JACK DUFF & JEN STONER

STAGE CREW BRIAN HARGREAVES, EVE RICHARDSON, LEO HULL & TOM GOULD

CREDITS / THANK YOUS

Bristol Old Vic would like to thank: our co-producing partners The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Zinnie Harris for dramaturgical support and Bristol Old Vic Workshop team and Jag Props.

The Lyceum would like to thank: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Pitlochry Theatre Festival, Grid Iron Theatre Company, Theatre Stuff, Trissden Chadwick, Dundee Rep and Edinburgh International Festival.

Programme design: www.MadeBy.DO, additional programme content: White Label

CAST

ROBERT AKODOTO

VRONSKY / VESLOVSKY

This is Robert’s professional theatrical debut. Whilst training: Circle Game, Closer, Live Like Pigs, DNA, Moonfleece, The Belle’s Stratagem, Julius Caesar, A Month in the Country.

TRAINED AT: Oxford School of Drama.

TALLULAH GREIVE

KITTY / FROU FROU / AMBASSADORS WIFE

This is Tallulah’s professional theatrical debut.

TELEVISION AND FILM APPEARANCES

Cinderella (Sony), Locked Down (AGC Studios), Our Ladies (Sony/Sigma Films), My Lady Jane (Amazon Prime), Penance (Channel 5), Flatmates (BBC), Millie Inbetween (CBBC).

LINDSEY CAMPBELL

ANNA KARENINA

LYCEUM APPEARANCES

A Christmas Carol

RECENT THEATRE APPEARANCES

Medea (National Theatre of Scotland), The Open House (Printroom Coronet/Ustinov Theatre), Relatively Speaking (National Tour), Right Now (Traverse Theatre/Bush Theatre/ Ustinov Theatre), The Harvest (Soho Theatre/Ustinov Theatre), The Big Meal (Ustinov Theatre/HighTide Festival), Nights (White Bear Theatre).

TELEVISION AND FILM APPEARANCES:

Payback; Endeavour; Taggart (ITV), River City; Silent Witness; Casualty; Doctors; Dani’s House; Pumped; The Old Guys; Intergalactic Kitchen (BBC), Single Father (Red Productions), Safe Home (Smashing Pictures), The Holly Kane Experiment (Substantial Films).

AWARD NOMINATIONS/WINS:

The Best Supporting Female in a Play Off West End Winner 2019 (The Open House, Printroom Coronet/Ustinov Theatre).

TRAINED AT:

The Royal School of Speech and Drama.

JAMIE MARIE LEARY

DOLLY / BETSY

RECENT THEATRE APPEARANCES

Expensive Sh*t (Soho Theatre/Traverse Theatre), Class Act:Silver; Breakfast Plays: B!RTH (Traverse Theatre), Locker Room Talk (Traverse Theatre/Latitude festival), Stand By (Utter theatre/The Byre), 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War (Wonderfools), Cinderella; A Christmas Carol (Citizens Theatre), Holding/ Holding on (National Theatre of Scotland).

TELEVISION AND FILM APPEARANCES

Ralph & Katie; River City; The Nest; Casualty (BBC), Traces (Alibi/BBC), Car Sick (Particular Films), Shepherd (GC Films), Super November (14c Studios), Where Do We Go From Here (Worrying Drake).

STEPHEN MCCOLE

KARENIN / ANDREI (MAITRE’D)

LYCEUM APPEARANCES

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off; Monks; Jumpy.

RECENT THEATRE APPEARANCES:

Medea, Blackwatch, Let the Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland).

TELEVISION, FILM & RADIO

Shetland; Vigil; The Hollow Crown (BBC), Band of Brothers, The Legend of Barney Thompson (Trinity Works Entertainment), Rushmore (Touchstone Pictures).

RAY SESAY

LEVIN / MYAGKAYA / COMMENTATOR / STATION MASTER

RECENT THEATRE APPEARANCES

Romeo & Juliet (Lyric Theatre Belfast), Seeds (Pleasance Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company), Book of Actions (Nouveau Riché), 13 (Tobacco Factory), Chicken Palace (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Sons Without Fathers; Red Helicopter (Arcola Theatre).

TELEVISION AND FILM APPEARANCES

Cheaters; Doctor Who; Endeavour; Holby City; Doctors (BBC), Please Use The Other Door (BBC Radio 4).

TRAINED AT

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

ANGUS MILLER STIVA

LYCEUM APPEARANCES

The Duchess of Malfi, The Belle’s Stratagem.

RECENT THEATRE APPEARANCES

The Prognostications of Mikey Noyce (Òran Mór/The Lemon Tree), The Comedy of Errors; Trainspotting (Citizen’s Theatre /Scottish Tour), Mooning (Òran Mór), Let The Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland/Royal Court/Apollo Theatre / St. Anne’s Warehouse, NY/US Tour).

TELEVISION AND FILM APPEARANCES

Outlander (Sony/Starz!), Shetland; The Gold; Guilt; Doctors (BBC), Teacup Travels (CBeebies), Crowman (Flyboy Films). Currently an STV continuity announcer.

CREATIVE TEAM

LESLEY HART

WRITER

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

Sherlock: A Study in Lipstick, Ketchup and Blood (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Safe Keeping (Paines Plough), Welcome to Bannockburn (A Play, A Pie & A Pint/Macrobert Arts Centre), World Domination (A Play, A Pie & A Pint/Sherman Theatre), Role Shift (Birds of Paradise), Flame Proof; 3 Seconds (A Play, A Pie & A Pint/Traverse Theatre), Saint One (A Play, A Pie & A Pint /Aberdeen Performing Arts), The Fundraiser (Horsecross Arts).

RADIO CREDITS

Personal Best (BBC Radio Scotland).

AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

Playwright Studio Scotland’s New Playwrights Award Winner 2011.

POLINA KALININA

DIRECTOR

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

As Director:

Smoke; Playboy of the Western World (Southwark Playhouse), Islanders; Flashes (Soho Theatre), Romeo & Juliet (Tobacco Factory Theatre & UK Tour), Julius Caesar (Neuss Globe Theatre), Noble Nine (Vault Festival), Shakespeare in Love (Clifftown Theatre), Gifted (Pleasance London), Overruled (Old Red Lion), Dutchman (Orange Tree Theatre).

As Associate Director:

The Events (Actors Touring Company & Young Vic).

BURSARIES AND AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

The James Menzies-Kitchin Young Director Award Finalist 2017, MGCfutures Bursary Recipient 2017.

TRAINED AT

LAMDA, National Theatre Studio, and Lincoln Centre Theatre in New York.

EMMA BAILEY DESIGNER

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

Uncle Vanya (Schauspielhaus Dortmund), A Mother’s Song (Macrobert Arts Centre Stirling), A Very Expensive Poison (Burgtheater Vienna), Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry (Xnthony Productions and Chapter Arts Dublin), Six the Musical (Vaudeville Theatre/Lena Horne, Broadway/UK Tour/ World Tour), Dan Daw Show (Sadlers Wells Theatre/Sydney Dance Festival/Kampnagel Hamburg/HOME, Manchester), Pleasure Seekers (Bourgeois & Maurice/Soho Theatre/HOME, Manchester/UK Tour), Little Wimmin (Figs in Wigs/UK Tour), Wedding Singer; Urinetown (Royal Academy of Music), Dirty Crusty (Yard Theatre), Super Duper Close Up (Made in China/Yard theatre), Tonight I’m Gonna be the New Me (Made in China/Soho Theatre), Double Double Act (Made in China, Unicorn Theatre).

AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

Drama Desk Award for Best Scenic Design Nominee 2022 (Six the Musical), Linbury Prize for Stage Design Winner 2011, Inaugural Maria Bjornson Fellow for Design at Royal Academy of Music, a 3-time JMK Award Finalist, and an RSC Trainee Designer 2011-2012.

TRAINING

Motley Theatre Design School and Bartlett School of Architecture.

MARK HENDERSON

LIGHTING DESIGNER

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

The Bodyguard; Girl From the North Country (UK and International Tours), The Boy in the Dress (RSC), Dancing at Lughnasa; Standing at the Sky’s Edge (National Theatre), Oklahoma (Chichester Festival Theatre), Sweet Charity (Donmar Warehouse), Into The Woods (Theatre Royal, Bath), Newsies (Troubadour, Wembley Park).

OTHER CREDITS

Kate Bush Live: Before the Dawn (2014). Opera credits include designs for English National Opera, Royal Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Glyndebourne.

Dance credits include designs for English National Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, the Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Rambert.

AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

Tony Award Winner 2006 (The History Boys), WhatsOnStage Award Winner 2013 (Sweeney Todd), Olivier Award Winner for Lighting Design in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2010 and 2016.

XANA

COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

Galatea (Wildworks/Marlborough Productions), Hamnet (RSC), The Trials; Marys Seacole (Donmar Warehouse), Sundown Kiki; Changing Destiny; Fairview; Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic), …cake (Theatre Peckham), Who Killed My Father (Tron Theatre/Scottish Tour), as british as a watermelon (Contact Theatre), Hyde and Seek (Guildhall), Sleepova; The P Word; Strange Fruit (Bush Theatre), Burgerz (Hackney Showroom), Black Holes (The Place), Sankofa: Before the Whitewash; Hive City Legacy (Roundhouse), Glamrou: From Quran to Queen; Curious; Half-Breed (Soho Theatre), Blood Knot (Orange Tree Theatre), Living Newspaper (Royal Court), Everyday (Deafinitely Theatre). Performer credits: The Collaboration (Young Vic).

AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

Sound Offie Finalist 2019 (Blood Knot, Orange tree Theatre), Sound Offie Nominee 2022 (The P Word, Bush Theatre) and 2023 (Sleepova, Bush Theatre), Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre Winner 2023 (The P Word, Bush Theatre).

VICKI MANDERSON

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR

LYCEUM CREDITS: Cockpit.

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

Movement Director/Choreographer credits include: Burn; Orphans; The Enemy; The 306 (National Theatre of Scotland), Moonset (Citizen’s Theatre), Cinderella; Wings Around Dundee (Dundee Rep), The Hope River Girls (Groupwork/Imaginate), Light Falls; Queen Margaret; The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Last Orders At The Dockside; The Country Girls; Jimmy’s Hall (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), The Afflicted (Summerhall, Edinburgh), Square Go (Edinburgh Fringe/New York & UK Tour), Crooked Dances (RSC), Companion: Moon (Coney), Ear For Eye; Instructions For Correct Assembly; A Profoundly Affectionate, Passionate Devotion To Someone (-Noun); The Children (Royal Court), Br’er Cotton (Theatre 503), We’re Still Here (National Theatre Wales), See Me Now (Young Vic).

Associate Movement Director credits include: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane (National Theatre), Let The Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland/Royal Court/ West End/New York), In Time O’ Strife; Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), The Twits (Royal Court), The Curious

Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (National Theatre/West End).

OTHER CREDITS

Co-founder of Scottish based theatre company, groupwork.

TRAINED AT

The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, London School of Contemporary Dance.

DEBI PIRIE

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

Assistant Director credits: Her (Strange Town Touring Company).

Director credits: IWD monologues (F*Bomb Theatre), Moonlight on Leith (New Celts).

BURSARIES AND AWARD NOMINATIONS / WINS

Federation of Scottish Theatre Bursary (in partnership with Traverse Theatre) for Assistant Directing Recipitent, C Arts Spark Fund Recipitent.

OTHER CREDITS

Debi is a workshop facilitator for Strange Town Youth Theatre and a Traverse Class Act freelancer.

TRAINED AT

Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University.

ADELAIDE WALDROP

INTIMACY DIRECTOR

RECENT THEATRE CREDITS

As Intimacy Director: Blackout Songs (Hampstead Theatre), MEAT (Theatre503), The Color Purple (Leicester Curve/Birmingham Hippodrome).

As Director: I Don’t Know Why I’m Crying (Camden People’s Theatre).

TELEVISION AND FILM CREDITS

Aftersun (Turkish Riviera Run Club Ltd), Mickey 17 (Warner Bros/Plan B Entertainment), Obsession (Netflix), The Acolyte (Disney+/Lucasfilm), Get Millie Black (Channel 4/HBO).

OTHER CREDITS

Co-Artistic Director of devised theatre company Maude

TRAINED AT LAMDA

ADAPTING TOLSTOY’S MASTERPIECE

BY LESLEY HART WRITER

My collaboration with Polina on Anna Karenina began with a dare. Polina was complaining to me that Russian texts often lose vigour and immediacy in translation. So, I dared her to make a stage adaptation of a Russian text with me, as a Scottish writer, that we could both be satisfied with. After a year of reading and deliberating, we settled on Anna Karenina, because of all the texts we considered we felt it gave the most enthralling and vivid exploration of the human experience. And it was the one we were most in love with.

What’s not to love? It’s an epic love story, a sumptuous feast of ideas, a breath-taking feat of observation, empathy, and psychological genius - a towering masterpiece, beautifully written. And for all its 19th century Russianness, I think it’s profoundly relatable if you just happen to be a human being. Some of the themes and explorations in Anna Karenina are timelessly relevant - questions of how to live, how to love, and how to be a family feel as urgent now as they ever have. More relevant than ever, perhaps, are questions of how damaging patriarchy, misogyny, and the public shaming of women can be – to women, and all society, and what to do about it. So, with our new version of Anna Karenina, we set out to askthose questions afresh, with a contemporary theatre audience in mind.

I should admit that, without Polina, I wouldn’t have attempted to adapt any Russian book, let alone one of the most iconic, best loved, and chunkiest on offer. I don’t know what was more intimidating, the prospect of presenting a new stage version of what is widely considered to be the greatest novel ever, which has been dramatised for stage, screen, and radio countless times before – often brilliantly – and comes with a terrifying audience expectation, or the 900-page tome itself. I wasn’t afraid of reading it – I have loved reading, re-reading, and ingesting the book. That’s been the greatest of pleasures. But

Set Design by Emma Bailey

the challenge of distilling and adapting those 900 pages into a good night out at the theatre, and bringing my own voice to it, seemed monumental. I only dared to do it and see it through over a four and a half-year period, because I had my friend and collaborator with me all the way.

I began by asking Polina, a native Russian speaker, to translate sections of Tolstoy’s original text – but to do it on the hoof, straight off the page, recording voice notes for me to transcribe. I thought, if the language can lose vigour and immediacy in translation, let’s see what we can capture and retain in Polina’s live translations of, and commentaries on, the original Russian text. Listening to and transcribing these recordings laid the bedrock for our collaboration. From here, and with Polina daring me all the way, I started to put her words into mine, bringing my own voice to the piece, and reimagining the characters and story into what is essentially a new play, by me. Throughout the process, we took a good old fashioned dialectical approach to negotiating the many problems and challenges of dramatising the novel: I brought my take, Polina brought hers. We often disagreed – sometimes played devil’s advocate with each other – but always arrived at a resolution we were both satisfied with, and which was usually better than what either of us suggested in the first place.

At its heart, the Anna Karenina you’re about to see is a synthesis of my take on the story as a Scottish playwright with no former connection to Russia, with Polina’s take as a Russian born, British director with a profound connection to the book and its roots.

Some characters emerged with distinctly Scottish voices. In particular, the Sherbatsky sisters felt very Scottish, perhaps because their relationship and family dynamic felt most familiar to me, and to Polina. Indeed, it is in the common ground between us that the play feels most Scottish, and Russian, I think – whether that be a rambunctious dinner scene or in a rammy between warring spouses.

Finding a form for the play took a lot of trial and error. The idea to splice scenes together and to conjure scenes within scenes via characters chatting (usually gossiping) about each other, came to me as I envisaged people ice skating through a restaurant scene. Levin starts to think about when he met Kitty ice skating earlier that day, and as he tells his pal, Stiva, about what happened, the scene comes alive in that moment, so that Levin is both on the rink with Kitty, and at lunch with Stiva, commenting on the action.

This splicing and conjuring of scenes became the central convention of the play, and shaped its composition, with three marriage stories and Anna’s affair all intersecting, energising and illuminating each other. It also helped us to build momentum into the play, to cover more narrative ground, and, to some extent, to dramatise the interior world of the characters.

Although, unlike Tolstoy, we can’t take the audience inside the minds of the bodies of the characters, we hope this convention captures something of the polyphony of Tolstoy’s novel and its fluid, ‘access all areas’ narration.

Moreover, conjuring scenes via gossip seemed like a good way to evoke a sense of scandal and scrutiny swelling around Anna, as her love affair with Vronsky becomes the talk of St Petersburg, and the tide of opinion turns on her.

After spending four and a half years adapting Anna Karenina, Polina and I hope we’ve delivered a fresh new stage version that is a great night out and whose language has enough vigour and immediacy to satisfy, not just us, but The Lyceum audience too.

For more than half my life I have been sitting in The Lyceum auditorium watching world class theatre. I have stepped out onto that stage a few times too. Sharing that beautiful space, and a live performance, with 600 people will always feel like magic to me. So, to watch Anna Karenina, written by me and directed by Polina, at The Lyceum, will be a very special moment indeed. I’m so glad we dared to do it.

Set Design by Emma Bailey

NANCY MEDINA’S JOYOUS FIRST SEASON AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

CHEEKY LITTLE BROWN CHOIR BOY

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ENHANCING THE STORYTELLING

BY EMMA BAILEY, DESIGNER

HOW DID YOU GET INTO YOUR JOB AS A PERFORMANCE DESIGNER?

A lot of trial and error! I studied Architecture at university and always loved spaces but needed a more experimental outlet. After university, my background experience has been pretty broad: working in the costume department on films, assisting more established designers in modelmaking and doing Computer-Aided Design as an interior designer. Weaving all these skills eventually turned me into a performance designer but I definitely didn’t start out with that aim.

HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT DESIGNING THE PRODUCTION? DOES THE CASTING IMPACT YOUR DESIGN?

I am a magpie, picking up images and research from a wide range of mediums whilst also digging into the text. With Anna, the period became an important player, so I spent a lot of time reading and researching. I love sketching and drawing, so I develop the process with a visual storyboard, mapping the moments through space. Then there’s trialling out forms and scale in the modelbox, be that out of card or on the computer. Each strand hones and informs the others. Of course, none of this is done in isolation, I’m constantly talking to the director in the beginning and then the other creatives as they join the team. I love integrating sound and lighting into the design, which makes it this unique creative tapestry.

Casting is a later addition so I don’t usually have any actors cast at the time I do my costume designs. They pivot around imaginary people at that point. Putting real bodies in clothes always throws up new ideas and directions. You have to adapt the designs to the cast to make things comfortable, flattering and to retain specific narratives. It requires lots of thinking on your feet whilst keeping hold of what makes up that character.

HAVE THERE BEEN ANY CHALLENGES IN DESIGNING THE PRODUCTION?

There are always one or two on a production. This one has been capturing the epic scale of Russia whilst also having multiple interior locations...

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT ADAPTING YOUR DESIGN AS A SHOW DEVELOPS IN THE REHEARSAL ROOM?

With a show this scale and the set designed months prior to the rehearsals there sometimes isn’t a huge amount of change possible to the design. However, there’s always room for some flex and I love being in the rehearsal room to collaborate on changes. It’s important to navigate and question why a change is needed to the design before implementing it. It invariably affects someone’s workload or budget if there are lots of changes and it’s necessary to be concise with those adaptations.

WHAT DO YOU THINK GOOD DESIGN ADDS TO THE ART OF STORYTELLING?

I could talk about this at length, but essentially good theatre design is that extra layer, enhancing the storytelling. Used properly it creates immersive scenes, it supports the narrative, develops characters, and evokes emotions. Guiding an audience’s focus and enabling seamless transitions through visuals, makes a more memorable experience, and strengthens the audience-story connection. Hopefully, the audience go home unpicking and thinking about those other layers...

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR JOB?

I love being experimental and playful, trying new and challenging things, and performance design allows that on a daily basis. I also love collaborating and being in a room of dedicated talented people. It’s such synergy!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT ANNA KARENINA?

As a mother myself, it’s that dichotomy of our prescribed role in society versus our emotions or desires. They are not mutually exclusive and Anna challenged this, choosing the pain of honesty over the disassociating blanket of deceit.

13 – 30 Sep

Tickets from £12 (plus concessions)

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Photo The Other Richard Design Feast

Francesca Moody Productions, Kater Gordon, Wessex Grove and Fiery Angel, in association with Bristol Old Vic

The Bristol Old Vic Team

Latcham, Daniel Loach, Elinor Lower, Krista Matthews, Carlota Matos, Charlotte McEvoy, Kira McGuinness, Lydia McKinley, Rose McPhilemy, Divija

Melally, Ayan Mohammud, Mary Morgan, Daniel Newman, Charlie Nye, Conor

O’Sullivan, Henry Paasch, Sophie Power, Zac

Poynter, Amelie Purvis, Jacob Rayner-Blair, Khadijah Sawyers, Samantha Sayer, Heidi

Sholl, Pippa Sloan, Chris-Ann Smith, Stan Smith, Hector Sturrock, Heather Sweet, Jossy Temme, Joseph Thomas, Katrina Trim, Flossie Ure, Charlotte Vickers-Graham, Tom Wijesinghe, Jonah Wills, Hope Wishart, Sol Woodroffe, Ben Wright, Eleonora Zampa, Elia Bandel, Isobel Barr, Phoebe Barry, Alexander Blake, Oliver Carden, Louis Cavalier, Lowen Costello-Roberts, Finlay Crawford, Ellen Crofton, Faith Dale-Hughes, Madeleine Faye Dodd, Chloe Foustoul, Oriol Gonzalez, Bethany Goodwin, India Grace Firth, Benjamin Gresswell, Alexander Lee, Nathan Long, Theresa Markey, Ted McCann, Mia McLeod, Lily Moore, Joshua Newman, Madaleine Newington-Wise, Zoe Oliver-Clavering, Pierre Perichon, Tomohiro Roddy, Sara Santillan, Ella Smalley, Jacob Taibel, Maxfield Usher, Jose Rafael Padula Viera, John Merritt Webster, Agnieszka Wilk, Tayla Winstone.

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