Wimbledon Postgraduate Showcase: MA Theatre and Performance Design
- Written byTimna Krenn
- Published date 03 January 2024
Share story
Wimbledon College of Arts Postgraduate Showcase: MA Theatre and Performance Design
Words by Timna Krenn, graduate in MA Performance: Theatre Making, Wimbledon College of Arts
One course, an assembly of young set designers, and a variety of approaches to theatre and performance design
A room filled with pleasant tones emanates from a tiny speaker next to the bar, as well as from people chatting warmly with each other. The entire lecture theatre at Wimbledon College of Arts is brimming with model boxes, beautifully arranged miniature designs representing a diverse array of performance and theatre pieces. Despite the very cold earlyDecember, Michael Vale, Course Leader MA Theatre and Performance Design, has invited guests to a private viewing in this warm atmosphere to showcase the work his postgraduate students have created over the last 15 months.
Upon entering the bright space, Ankita Kinikar, a passionate theatre practitioner with a background in architecture, greets visitors with a welcoming smile and provides splendid insight into her work. During one unit of the course, the cohort of students was tasked with creating a design for the theatre at Wimbledon College of Arts. Ankita decided to create a set design for the play 'The Half God of Rainfall' by Inua Ellams. In her interpretation, a long black ramp leads from the mezzanine of the theatre, adorned with Greek ornaments reminiscent of the halls of Mount Olympus, onto a stage entirely filled with sand. As a performer, I was instantly excited, as performing with and in sand is an extraordinary experience.
The postgraduate students in this course are also tasked with developing costumes for their respective designs. For Inua Ellams' piece, Ankita created costumes that reflect the protagonist’s dual identity as a half-Nigerian mortal and half-Greek God. Her design primarily features flesh-colored body suits, and to differentiate the Gods from the chorus, the young designer proposes dressing the cast in transparent cloth.
Ankita’s final work, an interpretation of the psychological thriller 'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson, radiates in shades of blue and red, focusing on the fear of the unknown in the play. When I asked her what is most important to her when she starts her work, she mentioned with great joy that, for her, the script breakdown of a play is the most crucial aspect. It helps her understand the emotions her set design should convey to the audience.
Lu Wang’s final work follows a different approach. In her site-specific installation for the Tate Modern, the audience is invited to immerse themselves in an exhibit shaped like a vortex of water, with pink and blue-designed jellyfish hanging from the ceiling, while large white fragments of dead corals are mounted on the walls – a compelling invitation for viewers to dive into Lu’s playful design representing the ocean.
Lu has a background in costume design for theatre and screen and is a passionate diver. These experiences inspired her installation. Her love for the sea world and her research on the drastic consequences of sea pollution resulting in coral bleaching motivated her to create this design. The concept behind her work is to immerse the viewer in a sea world by walking through corridors shaped like waves. At the beginning of the installation, the corridors are narrow but gradually widen, culminating in the spectator emerging from the undulating passage into a wide and open space dominated by a dark wall painting and massive industrial pillars wrapped with flourishing corals, showcasing nature’s colorful beauty. Lu discovered during her research process that unused pillars of old oil platforms provide a great habitat for a new form of coral.
It would be very interesting for me to experience this installation in full scale at Tate Modern. I believe that her work, through the implemented ecodramaturgy, provides a compelling invitation for the audience to experience a dive-like feeling. This might also encourage reflections on sustainability and the importance of environmental protection.
A similar immersive invitation to the audience but on a different theme, and viewed through a feminist lens, is offered by Lucie Iredale’s work 'WITCH.' The young set designer, with a background in architecture, drew inspiration from the work 'Caliban and the Witch' by the feminist labor theorist Silvia Federici. In this work, Federici rethinks the development of capitalism from a feminist perspective.
Lucie created this immersive experience accompanied by an adaptation of Rebecca Tamás’ poem 'Witch Europe' for The Ditch in Shoreditch Town Hall. Her work invites the spectator to walk into a rectangular space divided into three areas, separated by white translucent walls. The audience walks and stands on a pitch-black oil slick floor offering an intriguing interpretation of our own involvement and connection within a capitalist society – something that is undoubtedly challenging to shake off the soles of our shoes. My imagination directly sparked and saw imaginative traces of this piece dragged through the streets of Shoreditch with the audience's shoes.
In the middle of this promenade theatre set, Lucie places a wooden pillar half-covered in black oil to touch on the witch hunts and burning, that Federici sees as a restructuring of women’s roles within society and family during the rise of capitalism. Between the inner part of the rectangular set and its outskirts, the designer has planned to have a space that is only accessible to the performers. The contrasting golden floor of this area allows the two Narrator Witches to be illuminated by a golden glow. Within this set design, Lucie has created a dynamic space in which both the audience and performers can interact with what is seen, unseen, or brilliantly accentuated.
The cohort of Wimbledon’s MA Design for Theatre and Performance, consisting of 14 young designers from all over the world, created a wonderful collection of set designs with different approaches, styles, but all equally impressive.
If you would like to see more of this MA’s work, follow Wimbledon College of Arts Instagram