An interview with Jessica Curtis Designer, Jessica Curtis, talks about the process of designing the set and costume for Jekyll and Hyde:
WHAT ATMOSPHERE DID YOU WANT TO CREATE WITH THIS PRODUCTION? Neil’s amazing script asks us to take the audience into different atmospheres: disturbing and disorientating streets that are dark and murky, forensic spaces that are quite formal, exposing and a little intimidating, like the space where Dr Stephenson takes her Hippocratic oath and qualifies as a Doctor, and some rich and luxurious, very male dominated spaces that feel like a Victorian Private Members club. Talking to Sarah, our director, we felt the design needed to give us a clear feeling for the late Victorian period to put us in a specific society and class structure. I thought that a space that was quite ordered and rigid, with a built-in hierarchy would be a good counterpoint for more violent and uncontrolled movement and chaos. We need to give the audience the chilling suspense that I think they might expect as well as a few unexpected twists. WHAT WERE YOUR INITIAL IDEAS FOR THE FEEL OF THE PLAY AND HOW DID YOU DEVELOP THESE THROUGH YOUR DESIGN? Neil gave us a strong sense of the kind of spaces that had inspired his vision – the Victorian operating theatres of the time – these spaces encapsulated all of the themes in the play (moral and societal hierarchies, scientific endeavour) as well as having visual echoes of boxing rings, law courts, music halls and lecture theatres. 8
I feel that it is always important to try and understand and respect both the writer and director’s intention – what it is they are saying – so as to interpret that truthfully on stage. In this case Neil was very specific about what kind of space he had imagined as he wrote this adaptation so we followed his lead. I gather a lot of visual research – from painters and photographers mainly – some contemporary and some of the period. I began to play with versions of these tiered spaces in the model box and by drawing in my sketchbook. I thought a lot about texture, materials and colour as well as the two theatres this set would appear in. I adapted and changed these models in response to the thoughts of the rest of the team and we found the version that I then went on to present to the wider team. WHAT WERE YOUR AIMS FOR THE SET DESIGN AND HOW WERE THESE REALISED? My aims (in no particular order) were: To create a space that supported the telling of the story practically and atmospherically. That involved sharing and discussing images, models and ideas with all our collaborators – the director, lighting and sound designers and choreographer. We would think about very practical things like how the actors could access props and costumes, where microphones could be on the set and on their bodies, how deep the stairs could be and how wide the gaps might be between
