Research Video

Some thoughts from our Artistic Director, Nikolai Foster on the design for The Wizard Of Oz.

We started about 4 years ago, and I think The Wizard Of Oz is quite an overwhelming title to get your head round as a director. There have been so many versions of this play, so many different interpretations. I think because the play deals a lot in fantasy and Dorothy visits this magical world of Oz and the Emerald City, and is swept up in tornados and meets these incredible characters… I think there can be a temptation for a director and the creative team to feel that in order to elevate, and to set that material free, you need to be even more magical, even more imaginative and lay on extra layers of imagination and magic on to a story which is already very magical and very broad in its imaginative canvas.

And so what I did as director very early on in the process was go back to the novel, back to the source material, and to really dig down into what the writer was saying originally, and think about the political landscape, the ideas, the humanity that is already inherent in the source material, so that when you are building a visual language for the play, and when you’re trying to tell that story in a three dimensional way on stage, we were remaining true to the source material and enhancing it rather than imposing on to it a directors vision or a designers vision, which might stifle what is already a really imaginative and wildly creative story.

It also feels really important that the play speaks to us today and has something to say possibly about our communities, our society, that world we live in today. Sadly in many ways it felt the reflection, the mirror back on the Great Depression and recession, it felt like it had a key and a link to our world today... Many of the challenges around poverty and foodbanks and the environment that we are faced with in the 21st century, and how the characters in this play both at the turn of the 19th century and during the Great Depression in the 1930’s, how all of those things are sort of linked and they have an interesting resonance.

These quotes are an extract from our Research Video. Hear how the team developed the set design in the full video. This video is useful for educators to watch prior to delivering workshops or can be shared with learners.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...