Interview with Jessica Curtis

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. 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

the railings, where light sources might be positioned and what quality they might have – these sorts of discussions go on all the way through the process! To create a space sustainably. This involved discussions and lots of questions, mainly between the two production managers and construction teams about the most sustainable way to realise the design – could we re-use any materials and focus on hiring materials? Can we cut down on the journeys that materials, people and built objects take? What happens to the set once the show is complete – can we salvage or recycle anything? To make the transfer between to venues as smooth as possible. This is about comparing the two spaces and trying to make the design work equally well in both – embedding lights and masking, prop and costume storage, access and exit points into the set structure so that the actors and crew do not have to radically change what they have rehearsed from venue to venue.

LOOKING AT THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE, HOW HAS THE WORLD OF THE PLAY BEEN CREATED USING THE SET DESIGN, HOW DOES THE SET DESIGN CREATE DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND TIMES? The structure of the set is strongly based on the old operating Theatres that Neil imagined as he was writing with three curved tiers with stairs running up the sides. There are handrails to lean on at the front of each tier so that the chorus of men can lean overlooking down onto the main playing space below. This structure is permanent throughout the play. There is also a desk to the side that belongs to Dr Stevenson. She can return here – to her room at the office at any time, and it reminds us that her investigation is always ongoing as the notes and evidence she gathers mount up. Specific bits of furniture help us to show the audience where we are – for example, a hospital trolley and a bed show us when we are in the ward with a patient, and a blackboard puts us into a solicitors’ office. We don’t want to spend a lot of time changing the scenery from place to place – this is a fast-moving energetic script and we don’t want to interrupt that flow. It is important that every new object earns its keep by telling us something about the scene or being part of an action that helps keep the story going. Other elements – chairs for example, can be more neutral and it becomes the actors’ job when they interact with it to tell us where we are– slouching on a chair at home relaxing with port and cigars or sitting bolt upright in an interrogation at the police station. There are also three symbolic doors that represent important locations: The front door of Jekyll’s house, the shabby back door into his garden, and the door of Jekyll’s laboratory. They are presented in as part of the magical supernatural language of the play. Lighting also helps us enormously to transform the scale and feeling of a space. Gas lighting from up high puts us out on the street with some haze in the air giving us the fog of Victorian London, and a single oil lamp or candle puts us in a late-night domestic space. It has been really exciting to hear Simeon, our lighting designer’s research into Victorian light technology and the birth of electric lighting.

At times we go into a less realistic style of storytelling where a heightened lighting state help the audience to see that we have become more abstract – strong colour or dramatic up lighting can feel melodramatic and theatrical. Sound is another crucial tool. Ivan is exploring a wonderful mix of biological sound – breathing, pulses, gasping generated from the actors – and the Victorian songs that Neil has given us, smashed together to create something visceral and unique. Sound can create architecture very quickly – telling us how big or small a space is, if it is made of stone or padded with fabric – and then can place someone in it. We can play some interesting games with the audience as we position speakers around the space.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLOURS, MATERIALS, SHAPES AND LEVELS USED IN YOUR SET DESIGN? WHAT DOES THIS COMMUNICATE TO THE AUDIENCE? We use levels to communicate power in the set – literally asking who is high and who is low – who is observing – judging – and who is judged? I have used a very dark black/green/yellow palette to create a murky dark space where edges can be hard to distinguish – where it is easy to hide and occasionally disappear. I am exploring a range of texture (matt/shiny smooth/bumpy) within the set and costume so that despite these blurry edges there is still enough to catch light and give us some richness – stopping the structure from being too ‘flat” and boring to look at. It is made of wood and metal which has all been painted and distressed to look a little worn, inspired by the original spaces. The whole structure curves to help focus us into the main playing space, and to echo the apron stages in both spaces, so they sit in harmony with the auditoriums. This also means that the structure is self-supporting and doesn’t need a lot of extra bracing behind to stand up.

HOW DID YOU APPROACH COSTUME DESIGN FOR THIS PRODUCTION? I read the script carefully to get a sense of each character – looking for any information embedded in the text about them and their journey through the story. The mechanics of the play mean that most of the actors are on stage most of the time and most play a few different people. Sometimes they all play a chorus of men that are less specific than the main characters. Talking to Sarah about the pace of the play it became clear that we didn’t want long or complicated changes for costume that would pull people off stage so we decided quite early on that most of the actors would have a set of clothes – a base – which we would adapt in a simple way – by adding a jacket, rolling up sleeves, adding an apron – as they became a different character. As you can imagine, if you only have one garment to change someone into another person, you have to be really specific! For the men particularly, keeping this clothing quite similar in silhouette and colour for all of them meant we could also see them as a matching set – wearing a kind of posh man’s uniform – that emphasised their wolf-pack nature.

WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU HAVE TO UNDERTAKE WHEN DESIGNING COSTUMES? A lot of my research comes from contemporary photography from this period. As a new technology to the Victorians it was very popular thankfully for me! It is sometimes harder finding images of workingclass people although some individuals were beginning to record the living conditions of the poor through writing, photographs and drawings to increase awareness, gain understanding and campaign for better living conditions. The Museum of London, Wandsworth prison and the courthouse in Liverpool have some chilling images of street children from this time – some recorded as they were taken to trial. The miracle of the internet means that you can have access to an amazing amount of archived information from specific collections or museums that is a little more unusual than the first page of a Google search so I try and think creatively about my search terms. For example, A lot of things that come up are very formal special occasion kinds of images so I look for material from family albums that feel more relaxed and natural – there is a wonderful photographer called Lartigue who was given a camera at a very young age. He was really interested in movement and speed so he took lots of photographs of his governess jumping – she looks so happy and real – even in her corset and long skirt. I have also built up a collection of books that I search through – go and visit any exhibitions that seem helpful – there was an excellent exhibition of the painter Walter Sickert’s work that was very good for colour and atmosphere – his paintings are very dark and smoky as he spent a lot of time painting in Music Halls. I don’t watch films as much so that I am not too influenced by another designer’s work, but I did watch the Essex Serpent after we had settled the model which had some great scenes shot in an operating theatre (beautifully designed by Jane Petrie and Alice Normington). I also went to a great fabric merchants called Hopkins for inspiration who specialise in re-creating period fabrics. This helps me get a feel – literally – for the garments. I sometimes visit the V&A to look at the clothes for real: this helps you understand what they are in 3 dimensions and on a body – something it is very difficult to understand from a flat image.

HOW DO COSTUMES CONTRIBUTE TO THE TELLING OF THE STORY? I love the way that our natural instincts – to “read” a person a soon as we meet them never really switches off. Our lizard brain survives by working out very quickly whether a new acquaintance is a friend or a foe. In our very visual age we may often send signals about what we believe, how we vote, what music we listen to, what we do for a living, who we love, what we earn – all through what we wear. Our clothes are often telling a story about us that other people are very good at understanding. Whether that story is true is another thing altogether. When I am thinking about clothes for a character I think about their story and how it develops as well as how to support the actor and their physical interpretation of a character.