GRAND DESIGNS Set designer Bunny Christie conjures the spellbinding scenery for some of the world’s most acclaimed theatre productions
Words Marianka Swain Photography Carlotta Cardana
OR0617_18_Profile.indd 18 15/05/2017 09:28 OR0617_18_Profile.indd 19 15/05/2017 09:28 THE PROFILE BUNNY CHRISTIE 21
he first play set designer Bunny Christie saw was Peter Pan. “I will always remember them flying – that theatrical magic.” It’s a magic she herself has since frequently conjured, in landmark productions like international hit e Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on the novel by Mark Haddon. Growing up in Scotland, Christie was inspired by Philip Prowse’s work at the Glasgow Citizen’s eatre, but it wasn’t until she was studying at London art T Christie’s work has earned her school Central St Martins that she seriously three Olivier Awards and a Tony considered design. “at department was more Award for set design collaborative, and they seemed to be having a great time. It really suited my skills and temperament. “eatre designers have to be good at working in a and maps, but also fizzing with energy. It’s visceral.” team, but also coming up with ideas on our own – Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy, I’m often sat brainstorming months before rehearsals set in a women’s prison, began at Donmar Warehouse start and everyone else comes on board. I might make in 2012 and moved to the purpose-built King’s Cross adjustments, but depending on the size of the eatre. “Each play is in the same setting but reflects production, a lot is set in advance. at’s helpful in different aspects, from power and bullying rehearsals – having an element of the world realised.” to parenting, the fantastical and freedom. We did For e Curious Incident of the Dog in the workshops with Holloway prison inmates, and it was Night-Time, which premiered at London’s National an honour developing that world across three pieces.” eatre in 2012, Christie and director Marianne Elliott Christie loves variety: her current projects include experimented with ways to get the audience inside political comedy Ink at the Almeida; reuniting with the head of protagonist Christopher. “e book is Elliott on several productions, including Stephen so fun to read, and we wanted this to feel like a cool Sondheim’s Company; and Nicholas Hytner’s Julius place – a sensory dreamscape. You can be much more Caesar at London’s new Bridge eatre. playful in theatre than film, because you have e National’s People, Places & ings, moving people’s boundless imagination; if you tell them we’re to New York in October, immerses audiences in the stepping off a train, they see it. You literally play.” surreal world of illness. Research into those on the autistic spectrum “Duncan Macmillan’s script begins with a girl shaped Christie’s approach. “It can be a very ordered falling through the clouds, whizzing past stars and world, so we used the electronic mathematical grid, landing on a hospital gurney – it made me think but then something short-circuits and you lose ‘How do I do that?’ You’re working on a production control. Someone described it like a bath overflowing for months, and it’s a tenacious, complicated process, – that sudden rush of panic. We show that so it has to keep you hooked: from that first reading Christopher’s brain is highly logical, with calculations through to seeing it alive on stage.”
Where to see Bunny Christie’s vivid sets The multi-award winning designer Ink Julius Caesar People, Places & Things says that she loves variety in This political comedy at the Almeida, Sir Nicholas Hytner’s Julius Caesar The National’s critically acclaimed her work. She adds that both London, sees the capital’s 1960’s Fleet opens in January and will star Ben fantasy-filled drama opens in New collaborators and material are key Street brought to life – performances Whishaw and Michelle Fairley at York this October with Christie’s to her professional choices. run until August this year. London’s new Bridge Theatre. distinctive stamp on the visuals.
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